Special Report: After his election, Donald Trump had a narrow path to a transformational presidency, but it required breaking the neocon grip on U.S. foreign policy and telling truth to U.S. citizens. Already, Trump has failed, says Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
The 100-day mark may be an artificial measuring stick for a U.S. president. Obviously much can happen in the remaining 1,361 days of a four-year term. But Donald Trump’s decisions in his first three months in office have put him on an almost irreversible path to failure.
President Donald Trump being sworn in on Jan. 20, 2017. (Screen shot from Whitehouse.gov)
He now appears to be little more than a traditional Republican with more than a little dash of Kardashian sleaze in him, a boorish reality-TV star reading from a neocon script that could have been written for many of his GOP rivals, except he delivers his lines with worse grammar and a limited vocabulary, favoring imprecise words such as “beautiful” and “sad.”
Trump also has the look of a conman. He sold himself as a populist who would fight for the forgotten Americans, but is following domestic policies aimed at comforting his super-rich friends while afflicting his most loyal blue-collar supporters.
He promises a tax package that will give huge breaks to the already well-to-do; he backed a Republican health-care plan that would have left 24 million Americans without insurance but saved billions for billionaires; he shows no sign of delivering on his trillion-dollar infrastructure plan although he keeps pushing his “beautiful” wall across the entire border with Mexico; and his hectoring of U.S. companies to stop exporting jobs has been more show than substance.
On the foreign policy front, Trump has broken his vow to move away from endless war and needless confrontation – and avoid their extraordinary costs in blood and treasure. After months of getting newspaper-slapped by the mainstream media over Russia-gate, Trump has put his tail between his legs and become a housebroken dog to neocon dogma. He also licks the hand of Israel and Saudi Arabia as he and his team keep repeating the favorite Israeli-Saudi mantra that “Iran is the principal sponsor of terrorism.”
His administration also blames Iran – not Israel, Saudi Arabia and indeed the United States – for Middle Eastern instability. But it was President George W. Bush and his neocon advisers who devised the disastrous invasion of Iraq with Israeli backing; it was President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who pushed for “regime change” in Libya and Syria, another Israeli-Saudi priority; it was Saudi Arabia and its Gulf State allies that have armed Al Qaeda, Islamic State and other Sunni terrorist groups; it is Israel that has persecuted the indigenous Palestinian population for generations and invaded Lebanon among other neighbors.
For all its faults, Iran has mostly opposed these operations and is now contributing military forces to fight Islamic State and Al Qaeda militants in Iraq and Syria. Yet, Trump has now conformed to the upside-down view of the Middle East that all the “important people” of Official Washington know to be true, that it’s all Iran’s fault, except – of course – what can be pinned on Russia.
Trump as Sociopath
Under intense pressure from the Democratic and Republican establishments – and facing an intelligence-community-driven hysteria over vague links between some of his advisers and Moscow – Trump has further buckled on his pledge to improve relations with Russia, instead ratcheting up rhetoric and threats.
President Donald Trump welcomes Chinese President Xi Jinping to a state dinner during their summit at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, on April 6, 2017. (Screen shot from whitehouse.gov)
Trump earned Official Washington’s pat on the head for firing 59 Tomahawk missiles at Syria on April 6 before any careful evaluation of a chemical-weapons incident in northern Syria could be conducted, an action that Hillary Clinton and the neocon-dominated commentator class of Official Washington just loved.
Trump regaled Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo with the tale of how he disclosed the missile strike to Chinese President Xi Jinping during a state visit to Trump’s estate at Mar-a-Lago, giving the impression that he might be similarly reckless in attacking North Korea. Trump said he delivered the news over “the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you’ve ever seen,” allowing him to gauge the shock on Xi’s face.
“I said, ‘Mr. President, let me explain something to you’ — this was during dessert — ‘we’ve just fired 59 missiles’ — all of which hit, by the way, unbelievable, from, you know, hundreds of miles away, all of which hit, amazing,” Trump said.
“And he [Xi] was eating his cake. And he was silent,” Trump continued, adding that the Chinese president paused for 10 seconds before asking his interpreter to repeat what Trump had said. Trump clearly was relishing the moment, although it appears that a number of the Tomahawk missiles missed the targeted Syrian airbase with some striking a nearby village, killing nine civilians including four children, Syrian media reported.
Though Trump insisted that Xi approved of the attack, Trump’s sociopathic behavior most likely confirmed to Xi that Trump really is as mindlessly dangerous as many critics have warned.
Trump seems to enjoy watching shocked looks on people’s faces. I’m told that he explained to an associate that one of his joys in grabbing women by “the pussy” is to see their stunned reaction, fitting with his boast to Billy Bush of “Access Hollywood” that women are powerless to object given his status as a star. “When you’re a star, … you can do anything,” Trump said. “Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.”
Trump is more respectful — and obedient — toward men with real money. His head was surely turned when Sheldon Adelson, one of Israel’s most devoted advocates who has publicly suggested dropping a nuclear bomb inside Iran to coerce its government to do what Israel wants, donated a record $5 million to Trump’s inaugural festivities.
Indeed, what we have learned about Trump in the first 100 days is that he is a thin-skinned, insecure narcissist who obsesses over slights and relishes tangible signs of praise and approval. The Clinton campaign was right about one thing at least, that Trump’s fragile ego puts the future of mankind at risk given his control of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
Further enhancing that danger is that Trump apparently thinks his erratic behavior is a plus, not realizing that there are limits to what a madman can get away with even if he has his twitchy finger on the nuclear button. At some point, one of Trump’s crazed bluffs will be called and then he will have little choice but to prove that he is, indeed, a madman.
Lost Hope
Not that these criticisms come as much surprise, but there was hope – after his surprise election – that this irascible and arrogant figure might at least have the backbone to stand up against Official Washington’s neoconservative foreign policy orthodoxies and challenge the Israeli-Saudi dominance of U.S. policies in the Middle East.
President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at joint press conference on Feb. 15. 2017. (Screen shot from Whitehouse.gov)
The thinking went that Trump was a self-centered sonuvabitch but that personality might help him resist the pressures from the Washington establishment and thus avert a new, dangerous and expensive Cold War with Russia. Cooperation with Russia also held out prospects for finally ending the endless wars of his immediate predecessors.
Some Trump supporters told me that perhaps someone like Trump was the only hope to shatter the orthodoxies that had come to encase Official Washington’s thinking in concrete. These hopeful supporters saw him as an uncouth buffoon, yes, but maybe someone who wouldn’t care what was said about him on CNN or in The New York Times or at a Brookings Institution conference, someone who was unorthodox enough to sledgehammer cracks in the official group thinks, allowing some necessary light of fresh thinking to finally pour through.
But even if that were the case – if Trump were that person – he faced very difficult obstacles, including the reality that neocon groupthink had solidified deeply into the foundation of the U.S. establishment, expanding from its initial base in the Republican Party to effective control of the national Democrats as well, although Democrats prefer different labels such as liberal or humanitarian interventionist to neoconservative (more a semantic difference than substantial).
For Trump, Official Washington’s foreign-policy consensus meant there were few credentialed individuals who could help him break the mold – and win Senate confirmation. Trump would have to look for people outside the traditional establishment and such people would find themselves under an aggressive review process looking for any misstep to disqualify them. And the few who might survive that ordeal would find themselves in largely hostile bureaucracies – at the State Department, the Pentagon, the intelligence agencies, or the National Security Council – that would be determined to either bring the outsider to heel or destroy him or her with leaks and obstructions.
The ‘Deep State’
Despite denials from mainstream commentators about America having a “deep state,” one does exist in Washington, as should be obvious watching the cable news shows or reading the major newspapers. Indeed, there is arguably less diversity allowed in the vaunted “free press” of America than in some supposedly authoritarian states.
President Donald Trump announces the selection of Gen. H.R. McMaster as his new National Security Adviser on Feb. 20, 2017. (Screen shot from Whitehouse.gov)
For instance, even people with solid professional credentials who disagree with the U.S. government’s interpretation of the evidence on the April 4 chemical incident in Syria are excluded from participation in the public debate. The major U.S. media even takes pride in that exclusion because these people are deemed “fringe” or responsible for “propaganda” or guilty of “fake news.” The tendency toward careerist “groupthink” is very powerful in Washington and the national media.
So, Trump faced daunting challenges when he entered the presidency, requiring him to move quickly and decisively if he hoped to change the direction of the neocon endless-war bandwagon. He needed to put the establishment forces on the defensive by telling the truth about events where the Obama administration had kept the American people in the dark, such as the Syria-sarin case on Aug. 21, 2013, which was pinned on the Syrian government though evidence pointed toward anti-government rebels, and the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 shoot-down over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, which was blamed on Russia while key U.S. intelligence evidence was kept hidden. [See here and here.]
Trump also needed to show that he would not be the patsy of either Israel or the Saudi royal family. That would have required telling some unpleasant truths, such as the well-known fact inside the U.S. intelligence community that Saudi Arabia and its Gulf State allies have been state sponsors of terrorism for decades, making the fanatical killers from Al Qaeda and Islamic State possible, and that Israel has bent U.S. foreign policy in the region for generations.
If Trump really had the guts that he likes people to think he has, he could have frozen or seized Saudi assets as punishment for the kingdom’s state sponsorship of terrorism and for using Sunni extremists as a paramilitary force in its sectarian rivalry with Shiite-ruled countries like Iran. Or if he wanted to demonstrate his defiance of the hyped-up Russia-gate allegations, he could have immediately announced a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on how to bring the “war on terror” to a conclusion, rather than play a timid defense.
At the outset of his presidency, Trump could have really shaken things up. But instead he wasted his first days proving that he was the pumped-up fool that his detractors said he was. Rather than show some grace toward the defeated Democrats, he insisted absurdly that his inaugural crowd was bigger than President Obama’s (which it wasn’t). He failed to appreciate or defuse the anger from the Women’s March, which filled the streets of dozens of cities the day after his Inauguration (with women wearing pink pussy hats to chide Trump for his boasts about grabbing women in the crotch).
Trump also could have acknowledged that he lost the popular vote but note that he had won under the rules of the Constitution and intended to be President for all the people. Instead he put forth the absurd notion that he had won the popular vote, which he lost by almost three million ballots (and, no, there is no evidence of five million illegal votes for Clinton).
Phony Tough Guy
Over those crucial early days, Trump continued to tweet out silly comments, replete with bad spelling and sloppy grammar. His aides then had to defend his “alternative facts,” which played into the theme that Trump was a pathetic know-nothing who acted like a pompous know-it-all. All of that might have fit his image as a cad who cared nothing for what the powers-that-be thought about him, but it turned out that Trump was essentially a phony tough guy who could be brought to his knees if pounded sufficiently by the opinion leaders.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis welcomes Saudi Deputy Crown Prince and Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman to the Pentagon, March 16, 2017. (DoD photo by Sgt. Amber I. Smith)
Under the daily barrage of Russia-gate headlines, Trump tossed aside his first national security adviser, retired Gen. Michael Flynn, (essentially for not remembering every detail of a phone conversation with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kisylak). Trump then had his foreign-policy team join in bashing Russia (to prove he wasn’t Putin’s “puppet,” as Hillary Clinton had called him).
Trump’s policies toward Ukraine and Crimea became indistinguishable from those of President Obama’s. Trump also showed no curiosity regarding how the Obama administration had stoked the Ukraine crisis and, in 2014, had facilitated the violent putsch that overthrew elected President Viktor Yanukovych and provoked Crimea’s secession from Ukraine and the Ukrainian civil war.
In early April, after weeks of ignominious retreat under media fire, Trump hoisted his white flag of capitulation. He pleased the neocons and the liberal hawks with a rush to judgment on a mysterious chemical incident in an Al Qaeda-controlled area of northern Syria. Quickly blaming the Syrian government, Trump ordered the firing of 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian airbase on April 6. He also suggested that the Russians shared in the Syrian government’s guilt.
And, just like Obama, Trump hid whatever evidence he had from the American people, insisting that they accept his “high confidence” in his White House assessment. Under Trump, Americans were still being treated like the proverbial mushrooms except Trump’s crude declarations had replaced Obama’s smooth disingenuousness. Indeed, except for Trump’s Kardashian personality and his limited vocabulary, Trump’s foreign policy reflects more continuity with Obama – and with Hillary Clinton’s hawkishness – than any genuine differences.
If anything, Trump is now shifting U.S. foreign policy more into line with what the neocons demand than Obama did. With Trump’s goal to work more cooperatively with Russia smashed by Russia-gate, he is now cementing a foreign policy that is almost indistinguishable from what Trump’s vanquished Republican rivals, such as neocon Senators Marco Rubio of Florida, or Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, would have espoused. Or, for that matter, Hillary Clinton.
As The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, “The Trump administration’s still-emerging foreign policy has come into sharper focus as Defense Secretary Jim Mattis continues a whistle-stop tour through the Middle East, quietly placing building blocks for resetting ties that had been strained under the Obama White House.
“Over the past week, Mr. Mattis visited leaders in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel bearing the message that the Trump administration wants to realign with those nations and stressing that Washington and capitals in the region have shared interests, such as fighting terrorism. An animating feature of Mr. Mattis’s effort is to counter what he repeatedly has described as the malign influence of Iran.”
In other words, Trump is signaling that he is now in thrall to the influential Israeli-Saudi tandem and that means he will continue to deform U.S. foreign policy to meet Israeli-Saudi regional desires, which include a new bid for “regime change” in Syria and a heightened confrontation with Iran and Russia.
This strategy surrenders to the same falsehoods that brought George W. Bush’s presidency to disaster. It means the Saudis, the Qataris and other Sunni sheikdoms will again have a free hand to quietly slip U.S.-manufactured weaponry to Al Qaeda and its cohorts. It means the U.S. government will have to pile on evermore lies to conceal the sickening reality of a de facto U.S./Al Qaeda alliance from the American people.
The attendant tensions with Russia – and eventually with China – also could provoke a nuclear confrontation that Trump is psychologically unfit to manage. Playing madman – and counting on President Putin or President Xi to play the adult – is not as clever as it may sound. Putin and Xi have their own internal political pressures to consider – and they may feel compelled to call one of Trump’s bluffs.
Thus, Trump now appears on course to become a failed U.S. president, maybe one of the worst. But let’s all hope he is not the last.
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com).
I enjoyed the article until the author started blaming Israel. So tiresome…it’s always the Jews fault. One other important point Mr. Robert Parry: Quit advocating for the “Palestinians.” They are Arabs; Jordanians actually. “Palestinians” are the creation of Arafat. There is no “Palestine”; nor are there “Palestinians.” It’s a fabricated term. Their head; Abbas; is nothing but a terrorist in a suit and tie. Israel wants to live at peace. The “Palestinians” want the annihilation of all Jews–By the way–Iran doesn’t sponsor terrorism?? Are you serious??
I’m sick and tired of antisemitism. Place blame where it belongs–on the backs of the “Palestinians”, and other Arabs who want them wiped off the face of the earth. The Jews don’t strap bombs to children; or teach their children to stab Jews. In fact; they employ Arabs; treat their wounded, and give them voice in the Knesset.
Israel is a representative democracy; with a parliamentary system. It has a right to defend itself against threats to its people, and nation. The world continues to be blessed by her technologies. (Medicine; software components…it’s a long list.)
G-d is on their side. A day of reckoning is coming. Mark my word.
Agreed~ Trump has proven to be a smoke and mirrors/bait and switch neo-con, ass licking puppet of his Zionist masters and manipulators out of the illusions/promisses of his presidential campaign. He’s now positioned to possibly be the most reckless, irresponsible, and dangerous political figure to emerge in Washington since Lyndon Johnson.
The last US president with any kind of a conscience or moral principle was John F. Kennedy and we all know what happens to leaders who defy the Federal Reserve and central Zionist bankers and manipulations. Trump had the brief opportunity to make radical changes but history ultimately reveals all.
Notice the weather lately? Hot, isn’t it? Think we aren’t in deep dodo? Nemesis, the second Sun? Fooled, fooled, fooled, again and again, until, we stick our head’s so far up our own butts, we have headaches. We should tear up the DUMB(s) and make the Suit’s face the same crap they have planned for us.
Spot on!
Mr. Parry failed to say even a little peep about the Illegal alien issue, which is the reason Trump got elected. Nor did he mention the unfavorable trade deals – another major issue. The article is fundamentally deficient, but I agree with his limited assessment that Trump is a real bullying idiot and we will be very lucky if he does not start WW 3. If we escape this calamity, it will be due to the restraint of Russia and China.Putin and
I voted for Trump, and I have to say that I am at best disappointed. However, that does not prevent me from speaking the truth of what has happened to this country.
Just in case the author of this article, and the owner of this site don’t know, this is a nation based on popular sovereignty. I doubt they know or understand the concept, but it is none-the-less our system. “Sovereignty is, of course, not subject to law, for it is the author and source of the law; but in our system, while sovereign powers are delegated to agencies of government, sovereignty itself, remains with the people, by whom, and for whom all government exists and acts.”
We are woefully ignorant of what the Founders recognized, and established in order that the People could keep their freedom. Article 1, Section 8, Clause 15 recognizes that the only authority “to execute the Laws of the Union” is the militia. “Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves?” The 2nd Amendment is not there for hunting, and self-defense. It is there to make sure that the courts are free and open to the people. That the grand jury, and the petit jury are firmly in the hands of the people, and that agencies of government are held in check. When government agents fail to maintain their oath, they are subject to arrest, and it the duty of militia to make sure that they are not granted some form of immunity, but instead their deeds are brought to a grand jury.
We’ve lost touch with what it takes to maintain “a free state” because we associate the enforcement of law, which was to remain in the hands of the People, with violence. We’ve given our duty to agents of government, no longer beholding to the people, but rather operating contrary to the rule of law.
When we recognize, as the Founders did, that it is the duty of every citizen, as a member of the Constitutional Militia, “to execute the Laws of the Union”, it will begin to change. This a part of the Constitution. Its meaning, and the words as the Founders understood them cannot be changed without a constitutional amendment. Has that taken place? No! We simply fell into a stupor wherein the agencies of government convinced us that acts of the legislature can change the dynamic, and place the power anywhere they choose to place it.
For the time being, write all you want, but remember that the actions of all in government are condoned by the person you look at in the mirror.
Re immigration. I solely voted for Trump because he promised to build a wall and deport illegals. Plus, I want the dreaded 1965 “Immigration Act” repealed. This will only be accomplished when the American rise up.
The reason for this invasion is simple: most Americans remain silent, don’t vote, and spend a disproportionate amount of time engaged doing nothing, like watching NFL football. Contact your US Rep and 2 Senators; get to the polls to vote against the traitorous demRATS; return fundraising letters saying you will not give until the border is sealed and our unique Anglo heritage saved; prepare your meals and do your own gardening; go to NUMBERSUSA to send faxes to our alleged leaders; and join real immigration reform groups such as FAIR. Our enemies are at war with us, and we have to fight back. If you say or do nothing, you are part of the problem….
I agree 100 percent with Parry’s criticisms of Trump and his description of Trump’s basic character, i.e., an ego driven narcissist and more than just a little bit unhinged.
But, I do NOT agree with these not so subtle poisonous pearls of liberalism thrown into this article. I voted for this lying, backstabbing, flip flopping slab of New York City sewer rat dung – and given the choice between him and the diabolically evil Hildebeast (with no prior knowledge of his future flip flops) a second time – I would have still voted for Trump. Had I had a crystal ball last November to peer into – and could I have seen the future, I more than likely would have went for the most traditionally conservative third party candidate.
http://www.occidentaldissent.com/2017/04/29/jews-celebrate-successful-coup-against-trump-administration/
What Trump has proven and made crystal clear – is that voting is not the solution to overthrowing the jewish stranglehold over America. It is going to require a 1776 style remedy.
Robert Parry, Ron Paul and Paul Craig Roberts are three of the most courageous and truthful writers in the United States today but sadly, in the United States Truth is vilified and half-truths are like autumn leaves, found everywhere.
oh…and McCain confided, while in Brussels, that he is in almost daily communication with Mattis and McMaster. Any questions?
With the longer hair and the squinting eyes (to hide his soul) he looks like a hustler who hit the jackpot after someone made him the deal of a lifetime, at the expense of Americans, and at the gain of Israel. He just declared May as an annual Jewish American Heritage Month. A class act!
Clear insightful commentary
You pursue a point brilliantly Mr Parry, but for us poor mediocre blokes your intense focus on the man – not the machine behind him – compels us to believe you’re putting up another smokescrean: in short we still don’t understand what it is that America wants other than to promote its military industrial complex. With this it’s difficult to see how resistance groups such as the ISIL can be stopped – unless, of course the whole purpose of the exercise is, in fact, to promote them.
ISIS recently apologized to Israel for shooting at IDF forces. What else do we need to know?
‘the neocon grip on U.S. foreign policy’
And who are the neocons?
Why, it is a synonym for Jewish and Zionist and one who seeks to conflate US and Israeli goals a nd assessments, so the goyim kick in the blood and treasure for Greater Israel.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article178638.html
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/03/third-times-the-charm-the-neocons-want-another-sunni-insurgency.html
http://rense.com/general95/neocons-israel-syria.html
You nailed it!
This is probably the most level-headed critique of
the Trump Presidency I’ve read so far.
I do not know about you people, but DJT is successful. Hate government, ruin it, Success. Hate Immigrants, Success. Hate women’s reproductive rights, Success, Hate trade, Success, hate healthcare, Success, deny science, Success. Use a Massive Ordnance Air Blast, aka MOAB in Afghanistan a success So I believe DJT is a winner, and successful. God bless Donald J Trump and his family, we adore and love them, let nothing ever bad befall the Trumps. Long live our king.
That’s very good. But you forgot: Hate black people, suppress their votes; success, hate people of color in general, suppress their votes; success, promise anything to anyone; success, act like the greatest game-show host on the planet to a nation of idiots; success.
As President Assad of Syria has recently said: ‘Trump is the puppet of the Deep State’ of the US, made up of the Pentagon the CIA and the U.S. arms manufacturers ….all 13+ intel agencies are included in this broad statement ….This fraud Trump has got to go— along with ALL the other puppets he has put into place…. This is neither a Democratic nor a Republican issue….this is a race to Save The U.S. as we know it! Democrats and Republicans alike are puppets of the agencies and companies who really rule the U.S……and have the world in their sites! It is past time that the American people do what they have to do ( and are able to do) to
fight this cancer. I think one thing would help in getting ‘geared up’ for that is thinking of the ‘bait and switch’ schemes that companies have pulled over the years……WE were all BAITED!
The only possible positive thing about Trump’s presidency would be that the working people on the “right” who believed in him would see the futility of the two-party system and demand that it be upended. Same thing for those on the “left” who believed in Obama’s lies. If this were actually to occur, there might be hope for this wretched country. I’m not all that optimistic though.
There is no one I see now that could rally those groups, but they may be out there somewhere. That is the hope. People do need leaders.
Back in 1829 novelist and satirist, Thomas Love Peacock, coined a delightful term to describe such sociopathic life forms as Donald John Trump. Thomas Peacock coined, the colorful neologism, kakistocracy, which means: “government under the control of a nation’s worst or least-qualified citizens (kakisto = worst & kratia = power, rule, government).
Some have concluded that “character is destiny” and I wholeheartedly agree with their conclusion. Donald John Trump (aka Don Juan) has been accused of having raped an underage girl (in the mid-1990s) was being held by his good friend and fellow pervert, the convicted pedophile, Jeffrey Epstein, of “Lolita Express” fame. Don Juan, himself, has settled numerous allegations of sexual assault and rape.
Donald J. Trump (DJ) has a long history of having done backroom deals with NYC Mafia families that were brokered through DJ’s mob-lawyer Roy Cohn. DJ has been an exploiter of illegal-immigrant labor, he is anti-union, and he has a history of weaseling out of paying money that he has owed to vendors. Trump University was clearly a massive fraud. The Don has used the alias, John Barron, on several occasions with the media, in order to fraudulently promote and aggrandize the Trump name and the Trump brand. The Don has also consorted with, defended, assisted, and even praised convicted criminals including at least one convicted drug trafficker.
On top of all of this character building, the Don is a bloviating yahoo and a craven weasel. He is remembered in his neighborhood for throwing rocks at a toddler who was about a quarter of his age. At his alma mater, the New York Military Academy, he is remembered for being one of the heroic cadets who defended the honor of that institution, when a group of unauthorized high school girls rolled onto their campus in a sedan one day. These heroic young cadets drove off those trespassing teenage females with a hail of rocks. It’s too bad that our blonde Baby Huey was never able to put his aggressive skills to questionable use in Vietnam.
The bad news is that, as POTUS, this sociopathic and aggressive kakistocrat has surrounded himself with generals and admirals. The reader may recall that the occasionally-reliable Woodward & Bernstein – that dynamic double-whammy of a duo – reported in their monumental “Final Days” volume (page 194) that, “In Haig’s [Alexander Haig] presence, Kissinger referred pointedly to military men as, ‘dumb, stupid animals to be used’ as pawns for foreign policy.” Unfortunately, for the peace of our world, it is these same military men who are the tail that is wagging our pompous, ignoramus canine, Donnie-boy, who suffers from severe diastrephonia along with his other dangerous anti-social ills.
Trump reminds me of that 19th century frontier anti-hero and folk legend, “Doc” William Levingston, aka “Devil Bill”, aka William Avery Rockefeller Sr. (1810-1906), who was a convicted rapist of an underage girl at gunpoint, sold snake oil for a living, and was a bigamist. O yeah, I almost forgot, he was also the evil kakistocrat, John D. Rockefeller Sr.’s old man.who
So true , also true B took 9 flights on L.E. and B & H have a lot of fresh skeletons .
“He now appears to be little more than a traditional Republican with more than a little dash of Kardashian sleaze in him”
Huh? “now”? “appears”? Much as I like Mr. Parry and his admire his journalistic accomplishments … if you didn’t realize that he has always had “the look of a conman”, you’re effing deluded.
This just in: a depressing number of Americans are effing deluded.
A simpleton huckster way over his head, captured by the establishment after gagging on his own vapid sales pitch. Shocker!
“but it required breaking the neocon grip on U.S. foreign policy and telling truth to U.S. citizens. Already, Trump has failed”
True. He is as much captured by The Blob as was Obama, but for different reasons. Obama was struggling against his own party’s war hawks, led by Hillary. Trump is isolated, he has no party and not many serious advisers either.
Trump would need to show character, to stand up to The Blob and impose like-minded advisers. He does not have that sort of character, and has had nothing to do with that sort of adviser since the flakes that first flocked to him as a long shot.
It is a major problem that the Hillary wing of the Democrats and the establishment Republicans are both demanding war. A far better man would be overwhelmed by that, Obama for example.
Trump is just another loser who will be succeeded by a new one controlled by the same elite establishment that has governed the US for over 200 years.
Trump is to the populist Center/Right what Obama was to the populist Center/Left. Someone who can push through all manner of neocon/neoliberal policies at a frenetic pace while mouthing the words that will placate his base.
The net effect of these conflicting actions is the breakup of the base into a politically in-cohesive mass. The Center has no one to turn to, the populist factions at either end are effectively neutralized, the rank and file throw stones at the other side over conflicting verbiage while policy remains largely the same. Control of domestic policy by misdirection, execution of foreign policy wrapped in chaos.
For the life of me I do not comprehend what the political patronage class intend to do with their FRN holdings in the near future – with debt levels at 19 trillion and poised to explode further the Federal Govt will default at some point even if the debt ceiling is removed entirely. If interest rates were to go up three percent they wouldn’t be able to afford the finance charges on the money they borrow to make mandatory debt service payments.
For Trump to sustain revenues he will have to firesale Federal commons, most likely snapped up using discount loans from the Fed, converting a soon to be valueless instrument into real estate, mineral rights, public infrastructure etc.
The hammer is falling, and we are not an anvil.
“Conversation heals the wounds that we’ve made”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G50xd5JaFY
This is a quote from the politico article on the interview of the odious wolfowitz:
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/04/24/paul-wolfowitz-donald-trump-iraq-middle-east-215065
“he tells me, privately emailing with Trump Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and national security advisor H.R. McMaster, both longtime contacts since his Bush days, in hopes they will pursue a U.S. strategy of stepped-up engagement in the Middle East.”
Also, this link is to more discussion of that interview-evidently mattis was senior military advisor to wolfowitz when the bush neo cons controlled the pentagon:
https://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2017/04/26/iraq-war-architect-paul-wolfowitz-is-becoming-optimistic-on-trump/
My comment to blitzkrieg article:
I look at a picture of this reptile and it is nauseating-it is worse to hear/read his utter and complete pompous bull s—.
It is a mark of total depravity in american standards to even pay a moment’s notice to this cretin.
I really am starting to understand in more depth how these zionist termites continue burrow into the structure, go silent or underground, and come back again and again and again-as taleb noted, they do not recognize any wrong, any consequence, any reason why they should not continue to be granted the power without any skin in the game.
“He now appears to be little more than a traditional Republican with more than a little dash of Kardashian sleaze in him, a boorish reality-TV star reading from a neocon script that could have been written for many of his GOP rivals, except he delivers his lines with worse grammar and a limited vocabulary, favoring imprecise words such as “beautiful” and “sad.” ”
The pathetic part is that anyone believed he was anything but this.
Trump has given major responsibilities (peace in the Middle East is one of the many responsibilities) to his “empty suit” son-in-law who is known “not to read newspapers much less books” and his photogenic daughter the responsibility of continuing to promote the Trump brand. Even the clueless George W. Bush didn’t appoint his daughters or relatives to positions of authority.
Uh, yeah, Mr. Pres. is a sociopath. The New Yorker had that piece called the “Art of the Lie” long before the election. Trump’s ghostwriter hadn’t seen him in decades, yet he knew better than most people what an unstable sort of liar this man is. Sure glad Ms. Clinton didn’t get elected – what amazes me is how blind much of the left is, and that ANYONE thought Trump would be a “transformational” president. Yeah it’s a transformation all right – into fascism.
That photograph of General McMaster sitting next to his POTUS sporting a totally clean shaven head suggests an alternative ending to “Apocalypse Now” in which Colonel Kurz was given his promotion, instead of a contract by the Martin Sheen hit man character, and rapidly ascended to the diplomatic/White House track within the Pentagon, you know, the one that creates the endless conveyor belt of Powell’s, Petraeus’s and McCrystall’s.
Colonel Kurzt from Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”, Realist ?
Trump as King Leopold?
Bannon’s 2010 Generation Zero documentary and remarks made at the Vatican in 2014 make it clear that he views problems facing the United States originate from a generation of spoiled, affluent youth, growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, who weakened unique American institutions and values that their hard-working parents created.
:(somehow he failed to take into account the 90% tax rate on corporations, under President Eisenhower, that funded the extraordinary growth spurt in US economy featuring free collage for GI’s, low interest home loans, infrastructure building featuring segregated trade unions and segregated suburbs — and All That Jazz that’s never added to the myths of “equal opportunity”…)
::
But it was Polybius’ Histories that first articulated this generational view of history, suggesting that checks and balances could prevent the decline — his views much debated by the Founding Fathers
:(Samuel P. Huntington’s thinking in his “The Crisis of Democracy” brought forward the Fathers’ debate as he, Huntington, advocated for the Reduction of Democracy being called for by “radical” students and advocates of true ‘equal rights’. — Under Trump, we see the accepted expansion of the reduction democracy. — PS. Huntington was catagoried as “a liberal” – think about it…)
::
Polybius explains, the handing down of privileges to future generations is done without the latter understanding the discipline that was necessary to create the well-being to start with.
:(The Discipline that was necessary for the uptick of national prosperity was — higher corporate taxes. The underside of lower corporate taxes is the line from slave labor to convict labor and/or an Origin of Species theory of economics…)
Good advertisement could be misleading/
don’t be fooled by grimaced faces/with promises.
Madison Ave are just the men that own the mike
and is proclaiming his stuff/aka bill of goods,adverts
assertions, broadcasts of slogans/Public Relations/
Trump and Co. in Trademark affect
Marvel Comic story board mode
leading to a promised-land backstory.
In thinking we must hang loose
so as to avoid re-encampment…
truth or consequences?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyR62HNBBTw
The US elections have become nothing more than a battle between crime families. Our job, every four years, is to try to determine which mobster is less dangerous.
exactly.
excerpt–
Bannon’s 2010 Generation Zero documentary and remarks made at the Vatican in 2014 make it clear that he views problems facing the United States originate from a generation of spoiled, affluent youth, growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, who weakened unique American institutions and values that their hard-working parents created. By the 1990s Baby Boomers infested the government, media and academia, shaping the present millennial generation. This gave rise to policies that encouraged dependency on the government, weakened the family and, using the American past as prelude, Bannon believed, would lead to wars — unless a Machiavellian prince (or princess as Bannon once thought Sarah Palin could be) appears to stop and reverse the decline — and prevent wars.
For his documentary Bannon consulted Neil Howe, a non-academic historian, and David Kaiser, an academic one who taught at Harvard and Carnegie Mellon. Kaiser concedes that he was perhaps the only one incorporating in his work Howe’s and the late William Strauss’ generational view of history (though not buying into conclusions of necessarily ending in wars).
But it was Polybius’ Histories that first articulated this generational view of history, suggesting that checks and balances could prevent the decline — his views much debated by the Founding Fathers. The balance among branches of government was not about preventing short-term abuses of power, but the devastating impact that a weakened balance would have on future generations, destroying the foundations of sustainable prosperity.
Polybius reached his conclusion by first distinguishing between three distinct forms of government. In a kingdom, the king rules either justly or becomes a tyrant. When a group of men rules, they can either be the best and wisest (“the aristocrats”) or be corrupt oligarchs. A popular majority can constitute a democracy — the third option — with civic order and rule of law, or can also be mob rule where lawlessness prevails. Unless features of the three forms of governing are mixed, they can end badly, even if they start well, because, Polybius explains, the handing down of privileges to future generations is done without the latter understanding the discipline that was necessary to create the well-being to start with.
http://www.atimes.com/history-rhyming-bannon-generational-view-history-kind/
Mr Trump, We See Your True Colors (lucently) Shining Through.
::
4 Hours at the White House With Ted Nugent, Sarah Palin and Kid Rock
By GLENN THRUSH
APRIL 20, 2017
WASHINGTON — Ted Nugent, Kid Rock and Sarah Palin had a fete to remember at the White House for several hours Wednesday night, as President Trump treated the high-profile supporters to a white-china private dinner, a room-by-room tour and free-range policy chat.
“We were there for four hours, man!” Mr. Nugent, a 68-year-old Detroit native, said in a telephone interview on Thursday, using a four-letter expletive to signal his amazement at Mr. Trump’s willingness to spend so much time with his three casually dressed visitors.
“He gave us a wonderful personal tour of every room and talked about the origins of every carpet and every painting — there was a Monet — and then we had dinner,” said Mr. Nugent, who has referred to former President Barack Obama as a “mongrel” and to Hillary Clinton with an array of unflattering epithets.
The encounter included a tour of the executive residence, a grip-and-grin session with Mr. Trump in the Oval Office and an impromptu snapshot — featuring a sneering Ms. Palin — in front of Mrs. Clinton’s official portrait as the three guests and their families left through the East Wing.
Mr. Nugent said one member of the group — he wouldn’t say who — asked the three to extend their middle fingers beneath the portrait. “I politely declined,” he said. “Let the juxtaposition speak for itself.”
Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, described the meeting as “a long-planned” token of the president’s appreciation for Ms. Palin’s support in the 2016 campaign. But Mr. Nugent said it was much more than that.”
It was not clear if the president expected quite as much company. The invitation was initially extended to Ms. Palin, who promptly invited the two aging, gun-loving, stringy-haired musical bad boys —
Ms. Palin, whose slashing, populist-in-pumps political style prefigured Mr. Trump’s economic nationalist message, bonded with the president, another former reality TV star. She posted a raft of pictures on her website the morning after the visit, which had not been listed on the president’s public schedule.
“President Trump’s invitation for dinner included bringing a couple of friends,” Ms. Palin wrote on her web page, which displayed behind-the-scenes snapshots with a grinning Mr. Trump. Mr. Nugent, left, said the group was at the White House for four hours.
Mr. Nugent, who posed, capped in a camouflage cowboy hat, with a seated Mr. Trump in the Oval Office, was the subject of a 2012 Secret Service investigation after suggesting violence toward Mr. Obama during that year’s re-election campaign.
Not everyone was pleased with the visit.
“Ted Nugent, vile racist who called Obama a subhuman mongrel, feted by Donald Trump. Disgusting, disgraceful,” Norman Ornstein, a progressive political scientist, wrote in a Twitter message.
Mr. Nugent chortled when asked if he regretted his comments about Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton.
“No! I will never apologize for calling out evil people,” he said, arguing that Mr. Obama “intentionally dismantled the American dream for eight years.”
Sooo True…Trump was great at populist rhetoric that inspired the red state populations like Obuma did to the blue states in 2008. It will take an “integrated 3rd Party comprised of disenchanted Republicrats, Independents, Greens, Robert Steele’s Group to PLAN AHEAD and run at least Senate and House Candidates along with a Presidential candidate- 30% of the vote would have easily won in this last election.
This is disappointing but factually spot on.
Damning, tragic, disheartening, infuriating, disappointing all words that many feel. Trump is an example of a situation where people like me wanted to believe that someone would finally ride into Washington and decimate the foreign policy cabal that has destroyed so many lives and wasted so much of the worlds resources. If I were to look at a vote for Trump as a hard headed business decision, I would have walked away, a pox on both of them. But it wasn’t quite like that because the Hillary foreign policy crowd were lurking. Voting for Trump meant defeating the Hillary crowd and that was worth doing. It didn’t turn out well. I think more than being pissed at my vote, I remain pissed at the alternatives we had.
http://www.nydailynews.com/newswires/news/national/latest-syria-condemns-turkish-attack-kurds-article-1.3102179
Trump’s good buddy Erdogan. And how the U.S military changes the rules of engagement to sell out allies in favor of ISIS.
Robert; I agree with “most” of what you say, however, Trump has never raped a woman (as Bill did – and Hillary tolerated). He has never accepted tens of millions from countries that practice genital mutilation (or “genital cutting” as the NYT says) or honor killings, as Hillary has. So far, He has not increased arms sales, as Hillary and Obama did to kill innocent victims. He has no Benghazi around his neck. One of my relatives in the FBI characterizes Hillary as a “murderer”. Whose really worse? Time will tell. Maybe Trump will be a good student?
As a speculation, I’ll throw out the idea that Fox News is now in the Deep State batter’s cage. Murdoch, unlike Trump, is long time Deep State element/partner, but it’s hard to guess how strong/in touch that partnership was in recent times. Liberals (including me) see Murdoch as someone who has done a lot of damage to the World over the years. His Fox News unit is now in a role that is analogous to Trump as President – my enemy’s uncooperative donkey could be my opportunity so long as he remains uncooperative. Does Murdoch support Fox’s new independence from the govt. line, or is he hoping it will end soon. There are so few MSM mogul power centers left in the world, that if one becomes uncooperative, that matters a lot. Fox was showing a few signs over the last 6 months, and now that Trump is subdued, the pitchforks and torches are coming out for Fox (which deserves them, but is much less of a public threat than Deep State).
Please, pray tell, what has Trump done FOR America?
This article, which is pretty representative of who Trump is, could have and should have been written last year before the election.
Exactly.
Brilliant article
You have captured the horror of Trump.
“Trump also has the look of a conman”. Seriously? Just ‘the look’?
Can any person at all point out anything, any knowledge, any education, any background Trump has on any subject at all? Seriously – please point out 1 thing he knows about domestic or foreign policy. The ONLY knowledge he has is being a conman. And that by far is not even the worst of his character defects. This is the guy who started his presidency by paying $25M to settle a case of massive fraud – good grief. And he got a complete pass on that by press and supporters !
Disagreement with ideas and policies is 1 thing. Trump has NO ideas, or policies, or information. How has it come that a buffoon can mouth stupidities and lies on a daily basis and get elected? Or that once elected he now defaults into a knowledge wise man who has ‘big’ ideas to ‘make America great’?
To analyze Trump as a failure is to give him wayyyy more credit than possible. There is no chance of success because his whole schtick is astronomical childish egotism and self aggrandizement. There are NO plans, ideas, or even concern for the welfare of US citizens, or this country, or the world. His whole life and now Presidency will be an ongoing reality show solely judged by ratings and personal accumulation of $$. The only question is how much damage can he do, how bad will it get? Think W on steroids.
I like what you wrote, I thought it right on the money & funny.
What you wrote made me think about Howard Stern’s rise, that more people listened longer who hated Stern, and that sold advertisers. After I quit crying over what my generation has apparently produced over the last forty years, I regained enough of my composure to write to all of you and yell, ‘get out of the theater, save yourselfs’.
Trump is us. Not you, not me, but us. We are capitalist gone wild. There I probably just gave someone an idea for a DVD late night promo. We are more informed about Honey Boo Boo’s mom losing weight than we are to getting any objectivity reporting into our brains about Assad or Putin. No sense in getting mad at your uninformed neighbor, because it’s the single celled media that really does our American public the most harm. No ones bad, but the corporations want to keep it this way, dumb and stupid.
But at the, same time, it is US which produced extraordinary movies such as Idiocracy. Therefore, it is not that you are unaware of what is going on.
ASL, everyone who is rubbishing Trump forgets what a mammoth task reforming US is, with monumental dangers to personal livelihood, the family and even distant relatives. You need to empathize with our desperation for Trump, a crappy salesman and realtor, to become this miraculous reformer, considering all who put foot forward. At least Trump clearly stated what needed to be done, which no other candidate did. This means that the US regime really understands what its problems are, just nobody wants to make the necessary changes happen.
Since nobody sane wants the job, why do not you volunteer to be that reformer who will break through the vested interests of the monopolists? I know I could not do it, maybe you could.
You probably know that the supply of good people may not be the problem. I have often considered running for federal office, but know that I could never agree with the major funding sources, and would be attacked by the mass media. The problems are also too complex to be understood by most voters, who will deny grassroots support without a lot of preaching about popular issues as done by identity candidates. The problem is not so much the supply of people able to see and make the necessary changes, but the inability of such people to be widely recognized and elected.
You just gave detail to my statement that the reform looks like (almost) an impossible job, thank you. But Putin did it although on a much smaller scale. Maybe a force (not one individual) could be found to do it in US. Some kind of shock troops perhaps, even a temporary benevolent dictatorship? The place is going down the drain as it is, and possibly drawing the rest of the World with it, any attempt to change the path is better than staying on the current one.
He never would have been elected if he had run on the policies he has been implementing. As the piece says, he has become indistinguishable from Little Marco, Lyin’ Ted, Low Energy Jeb and the rest of the clown car he ran against. What set him apart during the campaign was the lies he told about wanting to avoid wars and co-operate with rather than confront Vladimir Putin. I am convinced that is why he won the election. Moreover, Hillary was so scary on her own merits that Trump didn’t even have to sound half-way articulate, and if you want proof of that just review the videos of the presidential debates in which she rhetorically mopped the floor with him. Enough people like readers of this blog fell for the ruse, in spite of his boorish behavior and obvious lack of knowledge if not intelligence. There was also some incidental bombastic rubbish about building walls, banning Muslims and repealing universal health insurance, but none of them, in my mind, were the game-winning hit, which was supposedly a rational foreign policy including repudiation of the mindless bellicose neocon agenda. As Gomer Pyle used to say, “Surprise, surprise!”
Are the “opinion leaders” neocons?
Wait just a doggone minute! Back in the mid sixties, the powers that be in this country (USA), in both the political and business establishments spheres, had a chance to either force the second and third worlds, where with all, by challenging them to a duel of all duels; attempt to match or overtake the western Occidents’ scientific and manufacturing prowess or sink to the bottom of depravity on both an intellectual and wealth creation level. It was the concerted power(s) of the WEST that chose to LOWER themselves, demean it’s citizens, to come down to, second and third world living standards by nihilistic-ally destroying our Western middle class(es), exporting intellectual property and the “means-of-production” into lands that were the “arm pits” of this world. But why did those who we entrusted our collective future to, betray themselves, their resident countries and their West Occident citizenry? The answer is easy as pie: a lust for wealth concentration, power that dominates and market manipulation (non-competition) This “philosophy” scarcely resembles any form of democratic government or process, freedom, or pride in competition, it DOES show a clear sign of Fascism, Elitism and renegade Corporatism! DON’T blame the likes of a Trump, its way too late for that accusation, CONSORTIUMNEWS readership! The answer to this dilemma requires that the masses remove the guillotines from their museums and place them in the town squares, as did the proles of the French Revolution! (I tip my hat to Ron Paul on this point) again, I tip my hat as well, to Marine Le Pen for she has unveiled the real truth of the matter! Of course, the alternate answer would be a President Roosevelt style, CCC program for all Americans based on a FLAT TAX funding to rebuild infrastructure, improve education and perform long overdue environmental clean ups (nuclear, chemical and old military bases in Europe and North America) BUT WHAT CHANCE! how can one man do it? How can the office of the president ever do it? that is, without the LBJ powers and congressional connections, JFK’s genius brain (which our fledgling Intel agencies, chose to put a bullet through) or Ike’s stature as a trusted military man and All American leader-how in heavens name can any country produce a leader (today) who has these disparate traits-qualities rolled up into a single person?- Let’s all begin by practicing the art of fighting nice and be VERY fair about Trump and fair TO Trump. Good luck in the hot seat, dice roller! gambling man! dare I say, half them men in our country wish they had a wife that looks as good as yours does, MR. President!
Interesting, but it is a bit late for the guillotines as well, as the oligarchy mass media, surveillance, and opportunist enforcers can prevent all but the most severe revolutionary organization from succeeding, while the Bolsheviks organized a population with far greater personal grievances of poverty, humiliation, and losses in WWI. It is the mass media that must go first: activism should focus on destroying the oligarchy mass media.
Sam F, “We The People” think, law enforcement, military and funding of these forces come from the rank and file, US. They are networked into families , brothers, sisters, cousins, in laws- we know (the throng does) where the rug is and how to pull it out. We, the proles, are the fabric itself, tax payers, soldiers, technicians who service computers, do plumbing jobs, fix electrical sub-stations and distribute food by truck- don’t ever get those truckers or hard hats thinking their being “robotized” to bow to “Ming-the-merciless” them wheels would stop turnin’ but fast. There’s millions of us against thousands of camera’s-don’t freak out man!
elmerfudzie your remark is exactly right and very important; it reminds me of Tolstoy’s response to a young South African lawyer trying desperately to find a way to lead the minority to better times beyond segregation…
https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Correspondence_between_Tolstoy_and_Gandhi
“Kardashian sleaze” .. My God, what are you saying!
Highlight of Trump presidency that ended after just 24 days with firing Flynn, was his inaugural speech, whoever wrote it surely is fired by now as it is Trump talent and specialization.
At least he is honest enough not to take money as POTUS since he does not know anything about such a job.
There was only one candidate in 2016 US elections, Hillary and she lost, so now we have the same neocon policies without neocon but with a POTUS placeholder.
Now you know***********
Top and exlent article Wich I recently have read. Mr Parry you are brave man and knowledgeable man. I wish the best for you to tell truth. Thanks.
Trump consistently beat war drums while campaigning and he promised to tear up the Nuclear agreement with Iran But remember that Hillary on the Campaign trail said her first task as President would be to convene a summit with Netanyahu and form an even closer military alliance between Israel and the USA.. Mr. Parry’s polemic is justified and no doubt most Consortium Readers and readers in general would agree. Trump is a louse but why open up on a sitting duck and waste buckshot. I see that Trump is easily cast as anti- intellectual, narcissistic, inarticulate, overbearing and obnoxious but we elected him and would Hillary be better? Blame the System that is so decadent that the American People had to choose between these two because the DNC and RNC said so. and we can’t do anything about the DNC or RNC so have a brew, an IPA or a glass of wine. I also hope Trump doesn’t force the “malignant dwarf” in charge in N Korea to do something really bad just because our boys will soon be coming to overthrow his government and kill him.
Trump doesn’t need to convene any special summit with Bibi to demonstrate his commitment to the “bigger deal” of a “regional approach” to war on behalf of Israel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmfseeZt5fA
The “malignant dwarf” son-in law appears to be sufficient evidence of Trump’s commitment to “Jewish people”.
Goodness, Loup-Bouc, why be so opinionated about Leonard Cohen’s work? Let people who appreciate it not be thrown into a category of “ignorant” or “stupid”! It’s all a matter of taste or choice.
How to get rid of Trump? How to get rid of the corrupt, rotten system that brought him?
It’s because he’s hypersophisticated, you see. Otherwise known as a snob.
I’m reminded of a couple of William Buckley’s shows that were platforms for him to display his sophistry and knowledge of Latin.
One occurred during a garbage haulers strike in New York and Buckley’s guest was an official in the local union. An acquaintance of mine at the time thought the official had just gotten off one of the corporation’s garbage trucks. It didn’t take long, however, for the union official to make mince-meat of Buckley. He had the advantage of using arguments based on reality rather than ideas mined in an ivory tower.
Another show featured Dennis Healey, a high-ranking member of Britain’s Labour Party. When Buckley tried to get a little one-upmanship over Healey using his knowledge of Latin he made a big mistake. Healey retaliated with an obviously better command of Latin than Buckley’s injections of short phrases.
In both instances, Buckley switched to his stock schtick of downgrading the debates to matters of little consequence.
In 1951, along with many other Ivy League alumni, Buckley was recruited into the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He served for two years including one year in Mexico City working on political action for E. Howard Hunt. These two officers remained lifelong friends.
In 1968, the ABC television network hired Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley, Jr. as political analysts of the presidential-nomination conventions of the Republican and Democratic parties.
In discussing the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests, the public intellectuals argued about the freedom-of-speech-right of American political protesters to display a Viet Cong flag, when Vidal told Buckley to “shut up a minute”, after Buckley had interrupted him, and, in response to Buckley’s reference to “pro-Nazi” protesters, said: “As far as I’m concerned, the only sort of pro- or crypto-Nazi I can think of is yourself.” Buckley replied, “Now listen, you queer. Stop calling me a crypto-Nazi, or I’ll sock you in the goddamn face, and you’ll stay plastered.” Vidal replied, “Oh, Bill, you’re too extraordinary.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYymnxoQnf8
Buckley declared, “Let the author of Myra Breckinridge go back to his pornography and stop making any allusions of Nazism to someone who served in the infantry in the last war.” Whereupon Vidal, who knew that Buckley had never actually made it into combat during World War II, exclaimed, “You were not in the infantry! Now you’re distorting your own military record!”
As the two men removed their earpieces at the end of the debate, a smiling Vidal whispered to Buckley, “Well, I guess we gave them their money’s worth tonight!”
In a 1999 interview with Buckley, Ted Koppel showed the “Nazi”-“queer” excerpt from the debates. Buckley was uncharacteristically speechless. He had hoped the tape had been destroyed. Vidal, who recalled that he had “enticed the cuckoo to sing its song,” knew better. He had obtained a complete set of tapes and reveled in playing them for guests at his Italian villa.
Thank you for this update, Abe
In 2007 Gore Vidal was at UCLA and someone in the audience asked him why he didn’t deck Buckley for calling him a queer. Gore replied, “I’ve done many wrong things in my life–but I have never decked a lady.”
Priceless sense of humor from a priceless man.
On April 3, 1969, a debate in New York City between William F. Buckley and Noam Chomsky was televised under the title “Vietnam and the Intellectuals”, as part of Buckley’s Firing Line series. Buckley displayed his penchant for empty threats of violence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gsFb0uSG5w
Buckley: “I rejoice in your disposition to argue the Vietnam question, especially when I recognize what an act of self-control this must involve…”
Chomsky: “It does.”
Buckley: “Sure.”
Chomsky: “It really does. I mean, I think that it’s the kind of issue where…”
Buckley: “And you’re doing very well. You’re doing very well.”
Chomsky: “Sometimes I lose my temper. Maybe not tonight.”
Buckley: “Maybe not tonight, because as you would, I’d smash you in the goddamn face.”
Thanks for all that, Abe, the walk down memory lane.
I read your comments to my husband and he got a laugh out of it too….
Buckley sure showed his stripes after Gore Vidal and Noam Chomsky succeeded in getting under his skin and drove him to reveal his thin veneer of superiority.
Much appreciated!
Please tell me how does the country get rid of him????
Third party, then protect voting machines.
“An Age of Decadence inevitably follows. Frivolity, aestheticism, hedonism, cynicism, pessimism, narcissism, consumerism, materialism, nihilism, fatalism, fanaticism, and other negative attributes, attitudes, and behaviors suffuse the population. Politics is increasingly corrupt, life increasingly unjust. A cabal of insiders accrues wealth and power at the expense of the citizenry, fostering a fatal opposition of interests between haves and have-nots. Mental and physical illness proliferates. The majority lives for bread and circuses; worships celebrities instead of divinities; takes its bearings from below rather than above; throws off social and moral restraints, especially on sexuality; shirks duties but insists on entitlements; and so forth. The society’s original vigor, virtue, and morale have been entirely effaced. Rotten to the core, the society awaits collapse, with only the date remaining to be determined.
With its ways of thinking and acting set in concrete, increasingly blind to reality and to alternative possibilities, an ossified civilization descends into a terminal stagnation that prepares its demise….The civilization’s elites may understand that the system is dysfunctional, but fundamental reform would require major sacrifice on their part, so they fight to preserve their privilege and power….Bluntly put, human societies are addicted to their ruling ideas and their received way of life, and they are fanatical in their defense. Hence they are extraordinarily reluctant to reform. “To admit error and cut losses,” said [Barbara] Tuchman, “is rare among individuals, unknown among states.” Instead of changing their minds, leaders redouble their efforts to do what no longer works, wooden-headedly persisting in error until the bitter end.
They resort to stupidity–doing what has never worked in the past, what cannot succeed in the present, and what will destroy the future both morally and practically. First, by engaging in unnecessary wars or imperial ventures that drain the civilization of blood and treasure. Second, by buying off the populace with bread, circuses, and entitlements, thereby promising more than can be delivered in the long term.”
Morris Berman
Short term and shallowly the oligarchs somewhat succeed,but the price they eventually pay immeasurable.
Telling the truth to the American people would have been an extremely risky game, and who knows, if it would have worked out.
One party to blame is missing.
Which is Bernie Sanders and his followers. They were Trumps natural allies to change foreign policy and end deep state. Perhaps Sanders never was the real deal though.
Sanders is an question mark, judas goat or intimidated?
Two bad choices, an endless carnival campaign. Many voted anti-Clinton, not pro-Trump. I’m inclined, by my intuition, to think that something very odd has happened with Trump, and somehow I feel it is through Ivanka and Jared, and Jared’s ties to Netanyahu and Soros, and of course the neocons. Trump was easy enough to take over because he knows so little, but I wonder if there is blackmail involved. I am inclined to agree with one person who said Trump is preferable to Clinton having won, because the nakedness of the emperor and the empire is now out in plain view.
President Trump may have come to the presidency unprepared but soon learned that there are forces at work beyond his control. He has been given the talk and shown the home movie from that day in Dealy plaza in 1963. I believe President Trump is and will get the last laugh by playing along with the NEO CONS and their war games. Notice the narrative changed dramatically when he fired the missiles into that abandoned base in Syria and warning Putin and Assad beforehand.
I say give President Trump some slack and don’t write him off so quickly. I see consumer confidence on the rise as is builders starting up new projects . Give the man more than 100 days before you judge him.
The alternative was abhor-able with hillary as POTUS we’d already be in a world war III scenario somewhere in the world.
Yes, if so inclined he has time to keep his promises or make better plans. But we were fooled far too long by Obama. Given Trump’s his lack of preparation of a shadow government, hopeful words should await proof of anything positive.
I say give President Trump some slack and don’t write him off so quickly.
OK. You call a cab to take you to your destination ten or 15 miles away. Within the first mile you realize the driver is really drunk. What do you do? Hope the driver will sober up over the remainder of the route or try to stop him and get the hell out of that cab and call the cops? The problem now with changing presidents is that the vice president could very likely be as bad or worse in a different way.
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died
Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long-stem rose
Everybody knows
Leonard Cohen
Risibly bad pseudo-poetry.
Cohen was a fraud worshiped by the ignorant, tasteless, and stupid.
De gustbus non est disputandum
The Latin is: “De gustibus non est disputandum.” The second term is “gustibus,” NOT “gustbus.”
The proposition (taste is not disputable) reflects sloppy thought. Latinizing it does not save it.
The Cohen pseudo-poem is risible for its bad form, bad diction, bad syntax, false references, inept images, ignorant perceptions, illogic, pretention, and overall poverty of thought.
“…bad form, bad diction, bad syntax, false references, inept images, ignorant perceptions, illogic, pretention, and overall poverty of thought.”
Gee… are those the ONLY criticisms you can come up with…. maybe a few MORE of your dilettante ravings would help. Come on… you can do it, we’re all breathlessly waiting.
PS – – ‘pretention’? The non-archaic version of the word is ‘pretension’. I would think you would be VERY familiar with the root ‘pretentious’. Please try to improve your usage in the future. Thank you.
This replies to American boy April 25, 2017 at 11:15 pm. This comment system does not permit my responding directly (under) his comment.
The term “pretention” is not “archaic,” but, among else, a legal form of nominalization “pretend” and a corrective reverse-nominalization of the pretend-adjectivization “pretentious.”
The legal term “pretention” means “a claim believed, incorrectly, to be an entitlement though not an admissible claim — a kind of arrogance. Such is Cohen’s production of hideously bad pseudo-poetry and Cohen’s implicit claim of being an artist or even intelligent.
Also, “pretention” is of French origin and is the source of both the American “archaic” spelling “pretention” and the American current-usage “pretension.” The “pretention” form is NOT archaic in British English, which, mostly, I speak (since American usage is troglodytic, despite not prehistoric). And your specious argument shows you are an idiot.
This corrects a typing error of the response I posted (25 April 2017 at 11:56 pm) to American boy April 25, 2017 at 11:15 pm.
The correction is of language of part of the 2nd paragraph of my responsive message of 25 April 2017, 11:56 pm:
NOT “a legal form of nominalization ‘pretend’” BUT “a legal form of nominalization of ‘pretend’”
I wrote: “The Cohen pseudo-poem is risible for its bad form, bad diction, bad syntax, false references, inept images, ignorant perceptions, illogic, pretention, and overall poverty of thought.”
I ought to have added very bad grammar, somewhat like, but perhaps worse than, the anti-grammar of Ebonics.
Am I ignorant, tasteless and stupid if I just like his music, but not worship him?
Whatever… the song is pretty prophetic, much like the who’s line of say hello to the new boss same as the old boss. I’d be inclined to think one stupid and ignorant and possibly tasteless for not recognizing the brilliance of it. That’s me tho…Either way I won’t hold it against ya.
Cohen’s “music” is NOT MUSIC. It is slop rendered with sounds uttered by devices (including human voices) that would be musical instruments if used to produce MUSIC.
What is music?
E.G., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzT4APqCqRY
I love Leonard Cohen and also Richard Wagner including Tannhauser…your namesake?
The video of the 2012 Bayreuth Lohengrin conducted by the great Andris Nelsons is soooo enjoyable….
It seems odd to me for someone to jump on someone else’s musical preference….
just saying….
That other’s preference is NOT music. It is toxic noise pretending, arrogantly, to be art.
So also is nearly all of Wagner’s work.
Loup-Bouc ,
I’m curious , how do you put up with the absence of light all the time ? Not to mention the odor. Where your head is , I mean.
I’m with you evelnc. Loup-Bouc thinks his s**t doesn’t stink. His opinions aren’t just opinions, they are solid facts that all the “right people” think. Bet he has a tiny wienie.
@evelync. Its homage to the Hero from Tim Willocks book the Religion.
@Loup, Stop taking yourself so seriously. Its music to my ears and that’s all that’s really required for it to be such, as the subject is completely subjective, or relative if you wish.
Please Loup-Bouc stop. We know how smart you are, and I respect that. Although the people who need to be reached the most will not appreciate your tone, since they will only take your rap as you are talking down to them. Now I’m not saying you should reach any lower of a level than your intellect will allow you to go, but think about the average voter and think of how Trump won them over. Say what you will about Trump, but his rhetoric was genius if you ask me considering how he reached the average masses. Besides all that this comment board for some reason is now talking about Leonard Cohen….why? We need brilliant people such as yourself to talk to us, not at us.
Having been a musician in my younger years, I found there is no such thing as bad music, just some terribly written songs, but nothing bad when it comes to making music that would find an audience so deserving and appreciative for what they have heard. Whether it be Mozart, or a Polka like ‘In Heaven there is no Beer’, you play what the crowd most enjoys. Every culture has it’s own style of music, and even though we American’s don’t always get down to it to like what other cultures call good music, we should respect it for the pleasure it gives to whatever culture has to call their brand of music their own. Now I’m repeating myself, so I hope you will take what I just said and think about it.
It’s also a good thing that George Martin didn’t look down on the Beatles…yeah I love the Beatles, but I also love all music. Now I have to go read Robert Parry’s essay once again because with all this talk about music I forgot what Parry wrote about.
Thanks mike k.
I saw him 8 or 9 years ago performing this in Austin
– and from about 30 yeas ago
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XDphyrGiaJE
And here’s also from about 30 years ago of Take this Waltz (for which he should win the Nobel Prize in literature IMO)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2sZzJAxfD-4
Again, Robert Parry has rendered an excellent piece of journalism. He wrought just one error. Trump is not a sociopath or psychopath (partly because he bears much fear and insecurity and a spare bit of capacity of empathy). He is a fascinatingly bizarre creature — a character-neurotic whose dominant character-aspect is narcissism but whose ego is weak and often experiences stimuli ego-dystonically (despite his conscious, public self presents an ego-syntonic façade).
I am a professional engaged in scholarly and artistic work and bearing tastes one may dub hypersophisticated. Still, like a sizeable majority of blue collar workers, I voted for Trump (though I had supported and voted for Sanders during the Primaries). Hillary is clearly a true psychopath and rabid neoliberl/neocon fraud and arch criminal. I expected that Trump could not be worse; and his stated policies included many that were utile and a few even actually progressive.
But, alas, Mr. Parry is, very likely, quite correct. Trump has betrayed his supporters in every vital respect. Perhaps Trump might reverse some of the effects of that betrayal. But any reversal seems unlikely.
Sanders has proven himself a fraud. See
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/14/bernie-sanders-the-company-man/
AND
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/14/roaming-charges-2/
Jill Stein’s recount-circus proved she, too, is a fraud, but, unlike Sanders, a sleaze-bag, too.
I have survived 20 Presidential elections and 5 major U.S. wars & steadily declining U.S. quality of life & gravely decaying U.S. education & hugely shrinking U.S. wealth distribution & growing impairment of privacy & civil liberties & voting power & alarming continuing increase of oppression & police-violence & U.S. military aggression & regime-change adventures. I have lost hope.
I agree except that there is a real basis for hope, not in the apparent trends, but in long term progress, even with likely disasters for the US as prerequisites. There is nothing to point to, and I will not sell hope. But it is likely that, if the US has not the courage for revolution until it is conquered or impoverished, that civilization will advance further elsewhere.
Nations with a history of social democracy or communism are more likely to become superior civilizations than the US, due to its diseases of oligarchy, no matter how far they have to go presently in democracy or economic progress. This will happen regardless of the intervening failures in the next century or two.
Yours: “This will happen regardless of the intervening failures in the next century or two.”
My wife, my dog-child, my few friends…….all will die within the next 25 years. I cannot wait for a century or two.
Yours: “Nations with a history of social democracy or communism are more likely to become superior civilizations than the US, due to its diseases of oligarchy, no matter how far they have to go presently in democracy or economic progress.”
My and my loved-ones’ situations preclude our migrating to a better “civilization.” And, if neocon America continues its current foreign intervention course, Earth’s atmosphere may become a poisonous gas or those better civilizations become virtually extinct.
Yes, we will pass like the imperfection of our time. The world will indeed pay a very high price for the greedy warmongering of neocon America. The good news is that the US will serve as an example of poorly designed and incurable democracy for many centuries. It had to happen sometime.
If that seems too sad, reflect that we all are like leaves upon the trees of our ultimately dying nations, without blame for our circumstances so long as we understand them and do all that can be done. We will pass and our cultural trees will pass, but the forest goes on and slowly evolves.
It is the disease of unregulated economic power that has killed our democracy. We have found that the people are unable to conquer it, and it always destroys its host. It may be conquered deliberately, or by survival of fitter structures. Our contribution to that progress is not lessened.
But that said, if you become sad enough to suicide-bomb some mass media facilities, corrupt courthouses or mil/intel agencies, be my guest, I will cheer and raise a toast to you every year.
Violence is not my way. I would not bomb anything. Violence is the root problem, manifested even in economics.
I appreciate, very greatly, your thoughtfulness — especially its quality of poetic philosophy and its tint of the apprehensions that live in Tao Te Ching.
But even Tao Te Ching fails, for the immensely sad reason that humanity is, in bulk, essentially psychopathic.
Only one other species wages war, the baboon. But even baboon warriors do not seek to annihilate.
Nearly all other non-human species kill ONLY to eat or in defense. Nature knows very few exceptions — one being some domestic cats, who torture victims for “play” and then do not eat them. But even such cats, do not threaten the world or destroy the lives or hopes of many billions of sentient creatures.
If humanity found, and used, a means of killing all of humanity but ONLY humanity — a means that left the rest of life unharmed — I would applaud the real manifest application of such means, despite I would perish. For, I feel much wide, deep empathy for all the INNOCENT life — the nonhuman life — of our planet; and I feel shame for the conduct of humanity.
Loup-Bouc, a more interesting philosophical questions is – how rare is the life in the Universe? If it is not rare, then maybe ours is the Natural Selection at work: only the intelligent life with the right combination of competition and cooperation survives. Perhaps the human civilization with its desire to annihilate the competition is not fit to continue and may take with it the rest of life on this planeta. But there could be trillions of trillions of other worlds with life on them, a loss of one of them would mean little in the overall scheme of things.
I laugh whenever I see science fiction in which some aliens describe humans as “an interesting species with lost of potential” instead of “a species with too much selfishness and delusion”.
I would suggest that humanity is not really “psychopathic” in the sense of individuals who injure others without just cause or cure, but rather self-motivated. Animals must be self-motivated to survive, but this does not over time imply excess selfishness, for civilization (and the personal circumstances of individuals) is the determinant of acceptance of moral principles. We must examine the diseases of civilization, rather than those of the individual, to find its cures.
The primary disease of our civilization is unregulated economic power. Its oligarchy has seized all institutions of our former democracy and must be expunged. The Constitution must be amended to restrict funding of mass media and elections to limited donations, to make checks and balances work within each branch, to expel most of the judiciary and legislatures for corruption, to monitor all public officials for economic corruption, to provide for broad and unbiased policy debate both expert and general, and to severely restrict and check all military and intel agencies. If we cannot do that, the US will survive finally only as an example of bad design, in those rare and determinative future moments of reflection upon how a new democracy should be structured.
Sam F is correct not all societies wish to annilhilate
This note responds to Sam F, April 25, 2017 at 9:21 pm.
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You misapprehend “psychopath.” A psychopath is NOT a human who injures others without just cause or cure. Like most other reasonably healthy people, you cannot grasp the core aspect of the psychopath’s character-structure, because that quality is beyond the understanding of most reasonably decent people.
The psychopath lacks empathy and conscience —utterly. But the psychopath does not merely lack empathy and conscience; the psychopath’s “sensibility” CANNOT COMPREHEND empathy or conscience.
The psychopath can observe empathic or conscientious behavior in others, rather as if in a psychological experiment or as if noting that an alpha male wolf will mate for life with an alpha female wolf. Empathic behavior will be “interesting” to the psychopath as various levels of pain-response were “interesting” to Dr. Mengele. To the psychopath, empathy and conscience are like bizarre experiential qualities of space-aliens.
The psychopath is not merely selfish. Every creature is selfish, always. But a healthy human loves selfishly, while a psychopath cannot love, and the psychopath’s selfishness is an utter disregard of the feelings of others, a disregard occurring because the psychopath cannot apprehend, in her “sensibility,” that others feel feelings, though she can observe, with cold intellect, that others profess having experiences they (the others) call feelings.
The psychopath’s experience is utterly ego-syntonic. Though the psychopath will anger if hurt, then psychopath will not perceive that the “culprit” has affected the psychopath’s ego.
You say that non-psychopath humans can be hurtful because they are self-motivated, like other animals, because they must be self-motivated to survive. The term “self-motivated” is insensible in the context of our discussion.
If you intend that “self-motivated” denote that a creature (human or other) acts because of internal stimuli (e.g., hunger, thirst, lust, pain, fear…….), then you do not distinguish the non-psychopath from the psychopath. Like all other creatures, the psychopath human acts because of internal stimuli and also because of external forces.
If you intend the proposition that healthy humans are not solely self-motivated, then, again, you do not distinguish the healthy human from the psychopath. The psychopath is not solely self-motivated, but acts often because of the influence of external forces.
If you intend that “self-motivated” denote motivated for self, then you intend a tautology, which denotes nothing but itself, which denotes nothing but its occurrence. And such denotation is empirically untenable, because it does not account that a creature can be motivated for self solely because of internal stimuli but also — either simultaneously or in separate occasions — motivated for self because of internal stimuli or because of external forces.
You assert that the “primary disease of our civilization is unregulated economic power.” Nonsense.
Unregulated economic power is the product of psychopathy, or near-psychopathic character-structure. It is the consequence of effective sociopathological greed — the greed of one who would take ALL wealth and feel no empathy for anyone hurt by his taking and no conscience for causing the hurt.
Such is not mere selfishness, which can move an individual to try to gain much wealth. It is utterly unempathic, unlimited selfishness pursued by a human who feels absolutely NOTHING for anyone else.
I asserted that “humanity is, in bulk, essentially psychopathic.” My assertion allowed that some humans are not psychopaths. I have reached a state of wondering whether the non-psychopaths constitute a small minority.
Many humans behave “morally.” But morals are rules — rather like the restraints of superego.
The morals-follower is not a good person, but merely fearful (concerned for what may befall her if she breaks a moral rule). She cannot be trusted. She will act for self-interest rather than empathically, whenever she perceives that selfishness will accord her appreciable net gain — gross gain that is appreciably more than empathic behavior would yield and markedly greater than the cost of threat of “punishment” for acting unempathically.
Consider the first three paragraphs of TAO TE CHING, Chapter 38 [my translation, Copyright © 2013, by me]
======
“A truly good man does not apprehend his goodness, and SO is good.
A foolish man tries to be good, and SO is NOT good.
“A truly good man does nothing, yet leaves nothing undone.
A foolish man is always doing, yet leaves much unfinished, even unattended.
When a truly good man does something, all is complete.
When a just man does something, he leaves much needing to be begun.
When a disciplinarian does something & no one responds, he grinds his teeth and tries to enforce order.
“When Tao is lost, goodness does not exist.
When goodness is lost, kindness begins.
When kindness is lost, justice begins.
When justice is lost, ritual begins.
Ritual is the husk of faith & loyalty, the beginning of confusion.
* * *
[END OF CHAPTER 38]
======
Tao has been lost to most of humanity. In bulk, humanity has lost Tao.
Not all human societies need to wish to annihilate, one with the capability and inclination is quite enough: Après nous le déluge Anglo-Zionist society, aka suicide bomber empire, is the one.
to Loup-Bouc, I think we differ primarily in nomenclature, and could have a good discussion under less pressure to respond. There is so much to be said about character vs. social processes and institutions, that the points can get lost in the terminology, and it is necessary to study and absorb concepts as much as expressions!
This corrects a typing error that marred my comment of April 27, 2017 at 1:04 am. That comment began “You misapprehend ‘psychopath’,” and it responded to Sam F’s comment of April 25, 2017 at 9:21 pm.
In that comment (mine of April 27, 2017 at 1:04 am), the fifth paragraph was:
“The psychopath’s experience is utterly ego-syntonic. Though the psychopath will anger if hurt, then psychopath will not perceive that the ‘culprit’ has affected the psychopath’s ego.”
In the second sentence’s independent clause (its second clause), the first word was “then.” That word ought to be “the,” and the sentence ought to be “Though the psychopath will anger if hurt, the psychopath will not perceive that the ‘culprit’ has affected the psychopath’s ego.”
“If humanity found, and used, a means of killing all of humanity but ONLY humanity — a means that left the rest of life unharmed — I would applaud the real manifest application of such means, despite I would perish. For, I feel much wide, deep empathy for all the INNOCENT life — the nonhuman life — of our planet; and I feel shame for the conduct of humanity…
…Every creature is selfish, always. But a healthy human loves selfishly…
…You assert that the “primary disease of our civilization is unregulated economic power.” Nonsense. Unregulated economic power is the product of psychopathy, or near-psychopathic character-structure…”
—————————————————————————————————————————————
While it may be true that a personal failure to regulate one’s own drive for economic power may in instances be due to psychopathy, unregulated economic power is a general condition of Western society that has become more noticeable as economic power has become more concentrated. Some or many may feel that this concentration needs to be scaled back or regulated because of its apparently corrupting influence. So in a very real sense, yes, unregulated economic power is a “disease” of our civilization
I am sorry for you that you feel all “love” is, at bottom, an act of selfishness. I suppose a pure cynic or perhaps a behaviorist like Skinner would agree and construe all acts accordingly. But I am of the mind that love is, in its essence, unselfish–and occurs within many human beings not infrequently.
One’s morals, or sense of morality, has outside factors or influences, but is essentially an intrinsic capacity and intuition that is individually developed or undeveloped as the case may be. Morals are individual standards of “right and wrong”—not “rules” per se.
Though human history is rife with examples of “man’s inhumanity towards man”, examples of the spirit of kindness, generosity, and self-sacrifice for the good of others are legion. I do not feel shame for humanity…on the contrary…I feel a kindred spirit with humanity in general, but of course am dismayed by the existence of many who do otherwise.
That you would applaud the “killing” or disappearance of humanity from Earth makes me shudder in revulsion.
I have not time enough to respond to all of your comment’s flaws — most owing to emotional armoring. But perhaps the following will suffice to incite your animal self (if any is left in you) to rummage the core repressions that engender your misapprehensions.
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Few civilized humans can accept that their essence is animal. They have been taught (even if by bad human example) that animals lack virtue, that their apprehensions are base, that they are just selfish.
But, like all other animals, all humans act, essentially, according to biochemistry, not some higher mind, and all humans, too, are selfish always. No one does anything except selfishly. Denying so is dishonesty.
Mother Theresa wanted to feel “good,” go to heaven, “be with God,” be accepted by “God,” excused from her doubts or sins. Buddhists are good to earn good karma (though their motive would make their effort fail, even if karma existed).
We LOVE because loving feels good. We give, if TRULY we do, because we cannot help ourselves (so that if we did not give, we would hurt) or because giving feels good. A TRULY good mother mothers her child well because of hormones & instinct & because good mothering feels good & because she delights in seeing the fruits of her mothering.
“A truly good man does not apprehend his goodness, and SO is good.
A foolish man tries to be good, and SO is NOT good.”
[First 2 lines of Chapter 38 of Tao Te Ching, my translation]
We are our best when we give from passion — ANIMAL passion. Romantic love — ANY love — is true & lasting just if it grows from passion, like the passion that explains an alpha wolf’s or a Canada Goose gander’s fighting ANYTHING to the death to defend his mate.
Passion is selfish, however much it produces good. And THAT is why it is trustworthy, true, reliable, empathic, innocent, and GOOD.
======
If a discrete human population bore a deadly microbe that threatened the rest of humanity and the only defense were destruction of that microbe-bearing population, its destruction would not be a wrong, but a good. Since humanity is a deadly microbe vis-a-vis the rest of sentient life, humanity’s destruction would be a good for the non-human sentient life of Earth, and, so, for the Earth, itself.
But, since my bestial empathy abhors violence (except mine waged necessarily to defend my wife, my dog, or myself), I could not participate in annihilation of humanity.
Thanks Loup-Bouc. Now that I am alerted to the nature of my existence, I can biochemically peel away the layers of repression I have used to emotionally protect myself. Of course that doesn’t really make sense to me in light of the fact that I am well aware of my body and have never denied the animalistic aspects of human existence. But your deep thinking leaves me in such awe that I surely must take your ideas for granted as you must know my mind better than I.
I am now free to cast away any interpretations of human meaning not tied to the all-encompassing reality of the pleasure principle.
But actually, I think you are so full of yourself, including all that animal shit you have backed up to your eyeballs, that I’ll just say…goodnight and good luck.
The following note responds to Gregory Herr, April 27, 2017 at 7:02 pm
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Sarcasm is the lowest form of ostensibly intelligent criticism. You stooped even lower with “animal shit” and sundry other sillinesses.
My points did not rest on “the pleasure principle.” Freud was emotionally armored, hence his perception pinched.
You do not hoist yourself to sensibility by pretending to the stature of Edward R. Murrow.
If Dubbia could get to be the President of the US then any “Don-Key” could become one as well………………failed presidency?!….Can anyone in his or her right mind remember a “not-failed one”!! We are living nothing more than a series of “Failed Presidencies” because of the Political Circus controlled by the 1%. And do not forget, please, the Unintended Consequences!!! Bill Clinton removed the Glass-Steagall Act and a number of years later you got the largest economic recession since the great depression!! Dubbia planted the seeds for the mess in the Middle East. Obama added to the mess and created more national debt than all presidents before him COMBINED…….would anybody expect Donny to do a good job?!…..Good Luck.
.Can anyone in his or her right mind remember a “not-failed one”!!
Jimmy Carter might have been a decent president, but the oligarchs of both major parties, including his Democratic (?) party, ganged up on him to make sure he would fail. We get failed presidencies because the American people failed and continue to fail in their duties as citizens, preferring to be consumers of mostly stuff.
Bill please give the serfs, wage slaves, undereducated, military fodder, extorted, corporate hosts, a break. Yes, everyone has sovereign responsibilty but poor USA citizens live in the greatest propaganda predatory capitalist machine ever created. Its akin to holding prisoners responsible for the wardens and guards actions. Yes they need to educate themselves and resist, yet again they are very much victim.
Agreed
Looking back the 1% took complete control back on November 22nd 1963.
As always, thanks Joe, but I think Oliver Stone was more accurate when he claimed that the Democratic Party began to go wrong when they chose the more pliable Harry Truman over Henry Wallace as FDR’s running mate in his final term.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/henry-wallace-criticizes-trumans-cold-war-policies
http://www.nytimes.com/1976/10/17/archives/henry-wallace-harry-truman-and-the-cold-war-the-cold-war-as.html?_r=0
” In the United States an informed public opinion will be all-powerful. Our people are peace-minded. But they often express themselves too late—for events today move much faster than public opinion. The people here, as everywhere in the world, must be convinced that another war is not inevitable. And through mass meetings such as this, and through persistent pamphleteering, the people can be organized for peace —even though a large segment of our press is propagandizing our people for war in the hope of scaring Russia. And we who look on this war-with-Russia talk as criminal foolishness must carry our message direct to the people—even though we may be called communists because we dare to speak out.” – Henery Wallace Madison Square Garden 1946
A speech delivered before a meeting under the joint auspices of the National Citizens Political Action Committee and the Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences, and Professions, New York, N.Y., September 12, 1946.
In 1946 while Winston Churchill titles the USSR as the Iron Curtain, and by this naming of the Soviet Union officially started the Cold War, Henry Wallace, Albert Einstein, along with many others held a peace rally in Madison Square Garden.
Bob you have probably read Henery Wallace’s speeche, but I hope others take the time to read what this good man said that day in Madison Square Garden.
http://newdeal.feri.org/wallace/haw28.htm
Thank you Joe…You’re so very important to the conversation!
Thanks Bob, now tell my kids that.
“The US continues to conduct joint military exercises off the Korean coast, the maritime boundaries of which are themselves in violation of international maritime law. Further, as noted above, the making of threats of unilateral (and illegal) military action are hardly conducive to the resolution of any dispute. Neither is unhelpfully labeling the other party a member of an ‘axis of evil’ likely to do anything to improve relations.
“Latterly, the western media have been full of alarmist threats about North Korea’s alleged capacity to fire a nuclear missile able to reach the west coast of the United States (and Australia). The lack of evidence of any technical ability to actually do so is not welcomed as part of the debate.
“More significantly, given that any such attack would lead to an immediate and massive retaliation reducing North Korea to a radioactive wasteland, it is difficult to discern any rational basis for such an alleged threat. Rationality however, is not part of the equation.
“It suits US foreign policy very well indeed to be able to paint Kim Yong-Un as a dangerous and unpredictable madman. It helps justify the massive continued US military (and nuclear armed) presence in the region, including in South Korea, and maintaining 400 military bases to ‘contain China’ and any other enemy du jour in the region. In that sense, Kim is very much Washington’s ‘useful idiot.’
“The greater danger to peace and stability in the region comes from an even more dangerous and unpredictable egoist in the White House. That really is a worry.”
Just Who Does Pose the Greater Threat in Korea?
By James ONeill
http://journal-neo.org/2017/04/24/just-who-does-pose-the-greater-threat-in-korea/
Gotta keep the “war machine” well fed. Probably the 1% or 2% of increase in the GDP is because of military expenditures.
A massive military buildup + an empire in decline. WAKE UP AMERICA.
And the option was Clinton! Or any of the other Republican buffoons in the primaries! Where is the common sense? Where is the rational thought?
God help America. God help the World.
The American people had decent and relatively decent people to choose from for president, but they chose two of the worst four for the final vote. Most of the commenters on this site would have had problems with Rand Paul and John Kasich but nothing like the problems we are having now with Trump or would have had with Clinton. Most of us will agree Sanders would have been a much better choice than Clinton from the Democratic(?) party. Jill Stein was the most decent option of all, but all of the swamp creatures would have ganged up on her and Sanders. Gary Johnson, a Libertarian like Rand Paul, was also problematic, but both might have resisted the drumbeats for going to war.
So, let’s not forget the 300-million monster – the American people – when it comes to assigning guilt.
Bill just to add to your comment, let us not forget Hillary’s sabotage of Sander’s, and the media handing Trump 4.6 billion dollars worth of free news coverage….and they say the system isn’t rigged, really.
Excellent summation. I believe this whole dirty double-crossing mess will end badly for everybody. Nuclear war could be the end game.
——————————————————————–
Oh Donny Boy: An Ode to The Donald
“We have met the enemy and he is us.” – Pogo
Oh, Donny Boy, the missiles, the missiles are landing
On Syria, Yemen and other countries too
Nations are being destroyed and people are slaughtered
Is this what you and other “leaders” want to do?
Your credibility is gone, and many people are dying
But you are praised and lauded by those who hated you
Oh Donny Boy, Oh, Donny Boy the planet is in deep doo, doo
Should we give “thanks” for your missile maniacs’ crew?
Still, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and England
The NATO countries and the corporate media too
Are all in “Seventh Heaven” and now ecstatic over you
Oh, Donny Boy, Oh, Donny Boy these are your “war friends”?
Isn’t that so very true!…
[much more info at link below]
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/04/oh-donny-boy-ode-to-donald.html
Thanks Robert Parry, as always, for the straight dope on exactly where we are and exactly who we are stuck with in the White House.
How do Ivanka and Jared sleep at night unless they are as clueless as the man they work for?
And if he is impeached under the Emolluments Clause, all we have to look forward to is the homophobic, right wing religious nut….
On the brighter side, there are a group of committed young and middle aged and even older people who intend to run for office against the establishment if the planet is not blown up first:
http://theprogressivewing.com/425-news-roundup-open-thread-bernie-speaks-at-the-rise-up-summit-dems-remain-divided-more/
Wow how refreshing to see this movement!
There is no way that Trump was ever going to do this on his own. The corruption he/we are fighting has had at least 50 years (since 1964, specifically) to root itself into the bowels of the “swamp,” even longer if you go to the creation of the CIA and NSA by Truman. You can’t beat that in a day, or even in 100. Though a besieged Trump finally gave in to a (one of the many) British sting-job by sending bombs over Syria, he is more likely to have quietly learned a lesson than to have capitulated.
He has developed good rapport with China’s Xi Jinping, and seems likely to do the same with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. This combination– US, Russian and China– is enough to “deep six” the “deep state,” which– like the Syrian White Helmets– is ultimately British at its core.
Don’t give up on Trump, yet; this battle is not over.
Would the real Donald Trump please step forward? He already has. His disgusting real phony self has been with us all along. There is no secret Trump playing a sly Hamlet like role. What you see is what you get. To look for some deeper level of this failed human being is to engage in a hopeful fantasy that can only get you and others hurt.
Mark-
You are very guilty of wishful thinking in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Trump is not the man you wish he would be. He never was. Look at the man’s past, look into his eyes, listen to his words. He is a narcissist and a sociopath. He played you and millions of others. Our only hope lies in recognizing reality, and fighting for real systemic change. We must stop the war machine, and make our leaders learn to wage peace in a multi-polar world.
The corruption he/we are fighting has had at least 50 years …
With slave owners there at the foundation corruption in the United States has been around for much more than 50 years.
I would love to share your hope Mark, but I do not believe in being a little bit of a war criminal as much as I do not believe in being a little bit pregnant.
The 100 day mark? Wasn’t that 2 weeks — a month — 6 weeks ago?
100 days from inauguration 1/20/17 to 4/30/17.
” The 100 day mark? Wasn’t that 2 weeks — a month — 6 weeks ago? ”
It just feels that way. Time seems to fly , but doesn’t actually , when you’re not having any fun.
In the top photo, who is the blonde between trump and his wife? Could it be a member of the Leonard Zelig family?
A devastating and accurate summation of the situation. Mr. Parry’s writing is always on point, but this one is on a higher level. Bravo.
I’m unimpressed. A vituperative, anti-Trump rant is reliably acceptable filler when nothing else is handy, but I can find the same thing at 40 or 50 other Web sites on any given day, and (yawn) I’ve already seen hundreds of them.
(Trump’s a sociopath? Gee, what was your first clue, his palatial, diamond-studded berth on Palm Beach County’s Isle de Sociopaths, or the gold-plated toilet seats therein? Nobody gets a multi-billion-dollar fortune–or, for that matter, an elected seat in federal politics–via his or her genuine love for humanity . . . unless its served bloody rare.)
Frankly, I expected better from Consortium than another unimaginative rider on the already overcrowded “Trump’s-failed-first-100-days” bandwagon. I guess it’s unrealistic to expect a clutch hit from Parry every time he pecks a keyboard.
In fact Mr. Parry has consistently criticized your sources of “vituperative, anti-Trump rant” despite considerable pushback from careless critics. His conclusion here is in no way a vituperative rant, and he has jumped on no bandwagons. So there appears to be no valid point in your comment. Please be more cautious.
North Korea has often been described as, “The Hermit Kingdom”. A more appropriate name might be, “The Fortress Kingdom”, or, “The Bunker Kingdom”. The United States couldn’t swallow the fact that it had been defeated by a feudal third world autocracy. So, while it couldn’t succeed on the ground, couldn’t win “hearts and minds”, and couldn’t shake the faith of brainwashed peasants indoctrinated by “The Red Menace”, it decided to do the “next best thing”. The United States carpet-bombed the entire country incessantly right up until the “armistice” was signed. Literally every major city was leveled to the ground. Dams, bridges and power stations were bombed. When there was nothing left of tactical significance, farmers’ fields were destroyed. North Korea dug in. They began building underground facilities to house vital infrastructure and hide vital defense capabilities. Most of those facilities are probably impregnable to anything shy of nuclear weapons.
The U.S. has had a long, self-delusional run of success with “wonder weapons”. But our drones are only ever deployed against third-world adversaries with no air defenses. When we sent one to Iran, they didn’t shoot it down. They electronically took control and landed it intact. We’ve dropped the “Mother Of All Bombs” on Afghanistan. It weighed 20,000 pounds and cost 314 million dollars. But if Afghanistan had an air force, the plane that dropped it wouldn’t have stood a chance. Even North Korea’s aging MiG-21fleet would have made short work of such a mission. And, of the 59 Tomahawk missiles launched against Syria, only 23 hit their target.
Now, we hear that a meeting is scheduled between the War Cabinet and the entire U.S. Senate tomorrow at the white house…for a briefing on North Korea. Our “powerful armada” is headed there. I’m guessing this is a desperate spasm to save face. Someone by now has probably explained to The President that he is about to make an irrefutable fool of himself. Aircraft carriers are defenseless against ballistic missiles. That’s an open secret. Cruise missiles would accomplish almost nothing. Bombing runs would face formidable antiaircraft barrages. And those MiG-21’s are old, but they’re still deadly.
This could be North Korea’s “go ahead, make my day” moment. But I’m guessing the whole point of that meeting tomorrow is so Mr. Trump can honestly say, “They talked me out of it.” Otherwise, brace for impact. This will not end well.
Anti-Ship missiles of the North Korean armed forces include:
C-802
An export upgraded version of the Chinese anti-ship missile YJ-8, it features small radar reflectivity, low attack flight path (only five to seven meters above the sea surface) and strong anti-jamming capability of its guidance system, Targeted ships have a very small chance of intercepting the missile. It can be launched from airplanes, surface ships, submarines and land-based vehicles.
When the missile is launched, the solid rocket propellant booster accelerates the speed of the missile to Mach 0.9 in a few seconds. After the booster burns out, it detaches from the missile body and the missile’s turbojet engine starts. Controlled by the inertial autopilot system and radio altimeter, the missile flies at a cruising speed of Mach 0.9, and the cruise altitude is reduced to 10–20 metres (depending on the sea state) from the original 20–30 metres of the C-801/YJ-81 missile.
When entering the terminal phase of flight, the missile switches on its terminal guidance radar to search for the target. Once within a few kilometers of the target, the missile drops to 3–5 meters above sea level, about the same as a French Exocet missile. This altitude is slightly lower than the original 5–7 metres of the C-801/YJ-81. The missile may also maneuver during the terminal phase to make it a more difficult target for shipborne air defense systems. When approaching the target, the missile dives to hit the waterline of the ship to inflict maximum damage.
KN-01
North Korean reverse-engineered locally-produced modification of the Chinese Silkworm and Russian P-15 missiles. 50 kg high-explosive (HE) warhead, with an approximate range of 160 km. Some reports have alleged that North Korea has made modifications to the missile to improve this range, with the missile potentially capable of traveling up to 300 km.
KN-09
North Korean version of the Russian Kh-35 subsonic anti-ship missile. Nicknamed “Harpoonski”, because it looks like and functions very similar to the American Harpoon missile, it is designed to attack vessels up to 5000 tonnes. The missile can be launched from helicopters, surface ships and coastal defense batteries with the help of a rocket booster.
Thanks, Abe. This looks like a bad place for naval operations, unless there is a shortage of these missiles.
Coming soon to a theater of warfare near you: Iran’s “go ahead, make my day” moment.
http://www.janes.com/article/69790/irgc-navy-receives-nasir-anti-ship-missiles
If the admin’s Korea threats are not mere theater, a limited disaster could have positive effects. For example, a limited Trump attack on NK resulting in a lost US ship, or escalated to a major attack on NK resulting in a nuked US carrier task force, would teach the US bully-boys a needed lesson. The entire world would see that this was due entirely to the US provocation, and each step of escalation would make the US seem responsible for the entire result. So if the US then nuked a Korean base, that would be seen as its initial intent, and if NK took out a US base in Japan or SK, it would be seen as fair. Wherever the US stopped, it would be blamed for it all.
On another article our friend elmerfudzie spoke about a technology called ‘magrav’ and after reading elmerfudzie’s comment I started reading about it. I’m not all that familiar with these new weapons, but if this magrav does what it is said it will do then all war will change. My question is, does this kind of kill switch weaponry exist? Not that I don’t believe elmerfudzie, but I want to learn more about this advanced technology, and I wonder to how real,and effective it is?
Although something new is possible, this appears to result from one of several marketing or propaganda reports of ineffective “superweapons” over the last decades. One was a subsonic noise machine designed to irritate soldiers in fixed positions a few hundred feet away. Another was ultrasonic. Another may have been high power electromagnetic jamming or heat induction. These are localized and ineffective for most purposes. Jamming of radar and communications is common, and commonly defended against. If there were a new offensive superweapon it would be used strategically, requiring proof of effectiveness.
@joeT- “Do such weapons exist?”
Go to the TASS Russian news agency site. Click the “military and defence” tab.
Enjoy.
Joe Tedesky, I’m sure you’ve heard that old adage before; I only know what I read in the papers. For reference visit http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index2285.htm. Magrav Technology requires a physics back ground to fully comprehend it’s implications. If our readers have this expertise or just want to peruse it, visit; http://www.thenewenergyindustry.com and click on index. There are various articles about Magrav technology. Frankly, my eyes glazed over when the caption for a visual depiction of this concept read; “There is a torque in the fabric of space-time That we can harness”-weeelllll, you don’t say! For the non-technical crowd, try youtube and search Khibiny Electronic Warfare and or Magrav. A song by Crosby, Stills Nash and Young…(Carry On) now comes to mind, rejoice!, rejoice! we have no choice, but to get along. Get this one for laughs, the works of Mehran Keshe were banned from the public domain and further research? and or application?, look up Obama’s Executive Order on this subject, circa 2012.
Thank you for the heads-up on magrav. I see the Keshe plasma generator and the Searle Effect Generator are the micro- and macro- versions of the same phenomena. Interesting how it will render obsolete oligarchic control of the many by the few, and obsolete their MIIC tools for maintaining such control. The cat’s outta the bag, no matter how much they try to ban it. Like the PC rendered oligarchic control of communication and “The Narrative” obsolete, this technology will render oligarchic control over power generation/transmission and industry in general, obsolete. And this, my friends, is how the Ministering Angels bring about the Changing of the ZeitGeists, or The Paradigm-Shift…it all starts with a little idea, blown into you(inspired), by the Muses, since you don’t just “generate”an idea like you’re just whittling a piece of wood. Ideas have mysterious origins.
And those origins are NOT in human hands.
Oh yeah. The song that keeps repeating in my mind over & over, is “while my guitar gently weeps”. It makes me tear up these days.
I fear there will be great loss in the Paradigm-Shift.
Many friends and acquaintances will be caught on the wrong side of the Shift.
While loud mouth Americans say, just bomb that little funny hairdo guy (not Trump he’s the big hairdo guy) back into the Stone Age, I’m curious to Moon Jae-in who is liberal and belongs to the Minjoo Party. I’m really envious that S Korea still has real liberals. Moon Jae-in was even once jailed for his political activism. Moon Jae-in wants to scale back the tension between the South and North, as he advocates de-escalating nuclear and conventional weapons, and further have a dialogue with the North. Moon Jae-in also wants to continue S Korea’s U.S. relationship, but he also wants to edge towards the west of his country….China, N Korea.
The problem is, is that the THAAD missiles will be in place before Moon Jae-in’s possibly becoming elected president of S Korea. Ask yourself what you would do if you were a Ratheon executive, making a few million a year? I mean which angel on each shoulder are you going to listen to? Damn morales & ethics on the left = Glorious Luxury Life on the right…call a bookie and get the odds.
My guest is Thursday’s White House meeting will possibly discuss Moon Jae-in’s seriously possible win, since Moon Jae-in is ahead in the polls, as much as these DC war strategist will discuss Kim Jung-un. These U.S. Asian partner joint military exercises aren’t helping any to keep everyone on the peninsula calm, and happy, and for that we call ourselves leaders of freedom, democracy, and a better way of life. Although in my estimation Kim Jung-un is hoping for a Moon Jae-in win. The real question is what corporate decision is being handed down to be read at Thursday White House meeting to not only the congress people who will be there, but too the President and his Cabinet who will obey and rollout as ordered?
http://fortune.com/2017/03/14/south-korea-president-park-moon-north-china-thaad-u-s/
I think the s**t is about to hit the fan in North Korea, before the election in South Korea. Being the narcissist that he is, Trump likes his new tough guy image. He basks in his new approval by the MIC. He will be led like a dog on a leash. I doubt he is intelligent enough to realize the very real danger, and the generals are whispering in his ear. It could all escalate very quickly into our first nuclear conflict since WWII (not counting the depleted uranium poison we’ve been spreading). I pray to God that I’m wrong.
Hey Skip you know what would be terrifying? If Prez Donald suddenly shaved his head.
Yikes!
I just substitute Kennedy with Trump and get Curtis Lemay to shave his head and I see the end of the World. Scary, very, very scary.
Skip, it’s not a major point but depleted uranium is no more deadly than any other heavy metal … lead is worse. It’s depleted because it nearly all of the U-235 isotope has been removed, leaving U-238, which has very low radioactivity. Depleted uranium is used in weapons because it is very dense and heavy and can be used as an anti-tank weapon.
Steve you must be a very young nuclear scientist. Depletion of Uranium is always much less than full, fully Depleted Uranium is a theoretical construct. Even wikipedia does not claim what you claim: “Depleted uranium (DU; also referred to in the past as Q-metal, depletalloy or D-38) is uranium with a lower content of the fissile isotope U-235 than natural uranium.” Naturally, even this definition is theoretical because Depleted Uranium is usually still highly radioactive. Simply put, DU is the nuclear waste (from nuclear weapons or energy production) packaged into ammunition because this is by far the cheapest way to dispose of it – shoot it at the enemy. As a heavy metal, Uranium also has some other useful killing and polluting properties. If US ever gets a dirty bomb exploded on its territory, then this will be an appropriate payback for its use of DU ammunitions in other lands.
One other thing to think about with a new White House war administration in office, is will now seem like one of the last best opportunities to exploit, Syria, Iran, and N Korea. I mean as each year, maybe even months go by these regime led (I’m talking like them) country’s are installing Russian made S-300 & maybe even S-400 systems, and holy the batteries are dead batman the ‘magrav technology whatever the hell that is is coming on line…well now maybe it’s a good time to go after everybody, except Crimea, or maybe all the more to do Crimea to keep the Russians busy….remember we pay these people our tax dollars to think for us like that.
Remember this there may be a lot we common folk don’t know, like what did happen to those 36 missing Tomahawks and does the American public believe the governments version or the fake news version, as this will likely be on their White House agenda of conversations. I mean we got people here who have a picture of Curtis LeMay hanging on their office walls.
Corporations can’t have peace. Probably the reason we haven’t used nukes, is because even the 1% don’t really know what to do, so why take a chance…it’s scary for everyone. What worries me, is the select corporate intellectual who thinks, if you got them you must use them…then we are all in trouble.
Personally I think Trump is being made to walk the walk. All Trump has to do, is say to himself ‘I’m doing the right thing….right’! Trump will not have been the first actor to enter the White House…I think everyone of our presidents had some acting ability for their day, and time as they presided in their role as U.S. President. With the rival nations evolving war technology becoming better,,and more active, this has to be of great concern to the American existing military dominance that these corporations still control. This is a crossroads we can’t avoid, but we could choose a right path, or a very wrong one.
This wouldn’t be the first time if a corporation had to scrap a whole plan, a strategy, a program, or do something drastic to restructure and save their remaining market….but will our guru’s be that giving, that humanitarian, who knows? Like I said, what are the odds?
Quick note. That figure of over $300M was for the whole production run of those bombs. Not more than 50, still expensive as hell and not worth a penny . . .
Thanks for clarifying.
God this is so clear and so sad. I was already depressed on this rainy day (here) but this article is the cherry on top of a shit sundae. I keep getting visions of the Dream shimmering away as we the people proudly march forward into the 3rd century AD, as the Empire begins its decline and fall. And it only took us 50 years. What incompetents!
When an Empire falls four things significant happen:
1. The moral underbelly of the Empire turns sour, rots. And with it the culture for they are related. Most people get their moral values from a materialistic system of greed called capitalism. Ego-centric behavior, narcissm, materialism, socio-centrism, intellectual cowardice, arrogance, lack of empathy, incivility, reliance on authority, loss of hope and more. Basically, rational thinking breaks down.
2. The Empire, when it crumbles, beefs up its military in an attempt to reconcile its failures. It defends its imperial conquests with trillions in expenditures while at the same time expanding, through debt, its tentacles, to no avail. In doing so, it bankrupts its economy.
3. People must expect and accept austerity, for it is in the interest of the Empire and its oligarchs. Cutting social programs and beefing up the military have severe consequences for the average working person, or the dispossessed, disabled, seniors, the youth, precarious workers, etc.
4. There is a move towards fascism, genuine totalitarianism by the elites as they see how much they stand to lose. And many millions of debt slaves and peasants applaud the plutocracy on its road to fascism. You are witnessing this with Trump.
5. There is always resistance. And this time it will be international. For there is no reason to accept the insanity of fascism.
While the empire falls we Americans are totally entertained between our infatuation with reality tv, sports, and infotainment news. As a society we have all fallen into a world of the absurd, and the distractions are so many that the truth sounds even more absurd, or so they tell us. I’m sorry to say that this all won’t end well due to the fact that the only sensible ones left, are now the ones who are being left out or demonized to this country’s loss, and now only catastrophe awaits our next turning.
With that tomorrow plant a tree and watch it grow.
I never had an impression that the majority of US people wanted an empire. It was more the idea of the monopolists – US empire as a tool to spread their own hegemony over the globe. I am not worried about US losing the status of the empire, as you should not either. But we should all be worried that the US internal contradictions and anomalies are not getting addressed (immigration, infrastructure etc).
One could be happy if the monopolists showed that they are good managers by making US prosperous. That could even qualify them to rule the World. But they are complete disasters even at home (although they usually have two homes and two passports) not to mention the conquered countries. It boggles the mind that the monopolists want to rule the World when they are incapable of ruling even one of their own countries to its benefit. Only their tribal home always benefits, everyone else loses.
trans national corporations are sacking the USA as they have many other nations previously, witness TPP. There is no national alliegence only greed is worshipped
I had other monopolists in mind. I do not want to be called an anti-Semite for criticising Israel’s expansionist and killing policies, I prefer to be called anti-monopolist. The secret of their success is that they monopolise everything they can put their hands on.
“Indeed, what we have learned about Trump in the first 100 days is that he is a thin-skinned, insecure narcissist who obsesses over sleights and relishes tangible signs of praise and approval.”
Umm…with all due respect…WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN? Every observer with her eyes open has known this about Donald J. Trump since at least the 19-fricking-80s! How could you possibly think he would have been anything other than exactly what he has been? Talk about projection — you saw in him what you hoped to see, and you still refuse to admit that you were WRONG WRONG WRONG. Makes it very hard to read the good stuff you publish, knowing just how much in the tank for Trump you were despite decades of evidence staring you in the face that you were delusional.
Desperation on behalf of the working class, the precarious class, the unemployed and disabled; the no hope white working class who sought and bought racism as the reason for their plight created Trump and desperation by the same people and others, will bring him down.
Those who saw the possibility of a Trump end to Mideast wars are not to be faulted relative to those who did not care that Hillary promised to expand those wars. Mr. Parry is not at fault for suggesting that Trump be given the chance to do so, whereas Hillary supporters fooled by the neocons have prevented Trump from doing that one good thing which she would never have done.
Mr. Parry did not see much promise in Trump, nor did any regular commenter here. But no better candidate was offered by the oligarchy, so he encouraged the few possible positive outcomes, and has declared the candidate a failure now that this is clear. That seems quite reasonable and fair.
Beat me to it. Killory guaranteed war, with Trump there was a slight glimmer of hope that we could avoid it.
There is still a chance, due to the same mercurial character that shot-from-the-hip 59 missiles. China and Russia have yet to get a full hearing (being set up for mid-May, 110 Nations attending, 28 by their Head-of-State, Trump may be one of them, this from EIR), to offer Trump a better deal, a deal-of-the-Century (New Silk Road), and his friends (Tillerson, that other guy, former Governor of Iowa, personal friends with President Xi JinPing) will tell him “jump on it, grab it by the U-know-what”. If Trump refuses, then it is certain failure for Trump, and America.
The problem is not in the chosen then in the lack of choice. Many who voted for Trump, as opposed to those who did not vote at all, will say that he was still the lesser of the two evils. But then there are always useless smart-aleck-I-told-you-sos.
Do not tell me that you voted for Hillary, the worse of the two evils!
It is clear what the ruling elites have done over the past few decades. First off, to seem to mark distance from Reaganism while at the same time pursuing its goals of upwards mobility for the rich only, they turned to the corporate demo party. The New Deal was pretty much dead after Truman in 1952 but Ike, though he might have stated he regretted it, gave us the end of the New Deal and the beginning of the War Deal. He also left us with a permanent war economy.
Johnson was the first host the militaristic parasites glommed on to to assure their war in Vietnam. Nixon had always been a useful tool, from his time in 1952 when he used McCarthyism and then joined with Dulles in the policies of the CIA to gain power. He was both mob backed and of course CIA backed. But he didn’t pan out, did he?
After Reaganism the policies of the one percent had to go on and glamorously so. But in the accumulation process most Americans did not like Reagan or Bush Sr or the way they presented their rapacious policies. So the move from ‘republican’ to corporate democrat began for the rulers. For decades. They used the vehicle of the corporate demos to accomplish their dirty work.
Now the parties are used up, old condoms so to speak.
It will be hard after the wedge of Trump to convince voters of any class that a republican or corporate demo can ‘restore’ America.
What will the oligarchs do when people find out that both parties and Trump were used by the parasitic capitalist class to assure the pilfering of the nation?
They are doing it now, within the nation. They are using Trump, who they care little for, to assure that the hatches really are clamped down this time. For they know that a thirty some odd year swindle of coin operated politicians on behalf of the ruling class brings little but despair to their lives. Soon, they will see it is capitalism that is the problem, and then perhaps the great healing can begin.
i suggest elites is too positive a term for such negativity, “oligarchs”is good framing
Agreed.
In the first 100 days of his presidency, Trump took military action in violation of international law based on fake “open source intelligence” supplied by UK-based deception operatives Eliot Higgins and Dan Kaszeta of Bellingcat.
The fact that Kaszeta is now backing evidence free “Israeli intelligence” claims that Syria still possesses chemical weapons points to collusion between Israel and the fake “citizen investigative journalists” at Bellingcat.
The threat of direct military confrontation with Russia based on claims by anonymous Israeli defense officials or British bloggers obviously represents a grave national security concern for the United States.
The U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) is responsible for gathering and analyzing the intelligence necessary to conduct foreign relations and national security activities.
The ability of the President and the Secretary of Defense to understand and respond to specific threats as quickly as possible is severely compromised by the production of “Government Assessment” documents based on inaccurate information.
Previous memoranda from Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) have addressed the “Government Assessment” political documents employed by the White House:
“Is Syria a Trap?” (6 September 2013)
“Sarin Attack at Ghouta on Aug. 21, 2013” (22 December 2015)
“Releasing an Intelligence Report on Shoot-Down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17” (22 July 2015)
“Syria: Was It Really ‘A Chemical Weapons Attack’?” (11 April 2017)
Of urgent concern is the body of information used to manufacture “Government Assessment” documents. The United States Government’s assessments appear to have relied primarily on videos, social media reports and journalist accounts.
Open-source intelligence (OSINT) is defined by both the U.S. Director of National Intelligence and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), as “produced from publicly available information that is collected, exploited, and disseminated in a timely manner to an appropriate audience for the purpose of addressing a specific intelligence requirement.”
OSINT is intelligence collected from publicly available sources. In the intelligence community (IC), the term “open” refers to overt, publicly available sources (as opposed to covert or clandestine sources).
The US Intelligence Community’s open-source activities (known as the National Open Source Enterprise) are dictated by Intelligence Community Directive 301 promulgated by the Director of National Intelligence.
The “Government Assessment” political documents employed by the White House in August 2013 and July 2014 appear to have relied on an extra-governmental species of “open source intelligence” largely supplied by bloggers based in the United Kingdom.
Assessments of chemical use in Syria in 2013 (Brown Moses blog) and the downing of Flight MH17 and its aftermath in 2014 (Bellingcat blog) were supplied by UK citizen Eliot Higgins of Leicester.
Higgins collaborator Dan Kaszeta, a US-UK dual national based in London, provided additional claims of “chemical attacks” in Syria for both the Brown Moses and Bellingcat blogs.
Since 2013, self-appointed “chemical weapons expert” Kaszeta and “citizen investigative journalist” Higgins have continued to make claims about “chemical attacks” in Syria.
Immediately following the the 4 April 2017 chemical incident at Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib Syria, Kaszeta was cited as a go-to “expert” by the BBC, UK Guardian, CNN, Time magazine, NPR, Germany’s Die Welt and Deutsche Welle, Business Insider, Popular Science, Asia Times and the Associated Press.
Not content with merely quoting Kaszeta, BBC News online went so far as to publish an essay authored by Kaszeta titled “Syria ‘chemical attack’: What can forensics tell us?” At the end of his BBC News essay, in a furtive effort to quickly “tie the whole narrative together”, Kaszata mentioned that “In 2013, the chemical hexamine, used as an additive, was a critical piece of information linking the Ghouta attack to the government of President Assad.” This intriguing tidbit linked to a December 2013 New York Times article quoting Kaszeta’s own claims about the “very damning evidence” of hexamine.
However, Kaszeta’s claims about hexamine were already debunked in 2014. Kaszeta continues to claim that Hexamine was used in the 2013 Ghouta attack, despite the evidence that Hexamine is not soluble in alcohols, making it ineffective for this purpose.
Accurate analysis of all primary and secondary evidence relating to the 21 August 2013 chemical incident at Ghouta indicates it was carried out by Al Qaeda terrorist forces (Al Nusra Front or Jabhat al Nusra, also known as the Jabhat Fateh al Sham).
Accurate analysis of evidence relating to the 4 April 2017 chemical incident at Khan Shaykhun indicates it was carried out by Al Qaeda terrorist forces (Hay’at Tahrir al Sham, the latest rebranding of Al Nusra).
Higgins and Kaszeta have vigorously backed the narrative of an air-dropped chemical bomb in Idlib. However, none of Kaszeta’s articles on Bellingcat, nor any of the numerous citations of Kaszeta by mainstream media, address the complete absence of evidence of an aerial bomb.
The alleged “Sarin bomb” hole in the road in Idlib has been photographed numerous times from multiple angles. The size, depth and shape of the hole are clear evidence that it was not produced by a falling object such as an air-dropped bomb.
MIT physicist and Theodore A. Postol has pointed out that there is “no evidence that this attack was the result of a munition being dropped from an aircraft”.
Despite the fact that Higgins and Kaszeta’s previous claims about chemical attacks in Syria were repeatedly debunked, they continue to be cited as “experts” by mainstream media, human rights organizations, and Western governments.
Disinformation provided Kaszeta and Higgins enabled the Trump administration to launch its Tomahawk missile attack against Syria without significant resistance from the American public.
On 19 April 2017, an anonymous Israeli military official provided an evidence free briefing to reporters in Jerusalem. He said that an “Israeli intelligence” claimed that Syrian military commanders ordered the Khan Shaukun attack with President Assad’s knowledge. He also said Israel “estimates” Syria still has “between one and three tons” of chemical weapons. Two other anonymous Israeli defense officials “confirmed” this “assessment”.
The Associated Press (AP) report of the Israeli briefing included an interview with Bellingcat’s Kaszeta. Josef Federman, AP bureau chief for Israel since 2014, wrote:
https://apnews.com/fc7c8d33cb0c4c3da66bfd9f0e8099d1
“Dan Kaszeta, a U.K.-based chemical weapons expert, said the Israeli estimate appeared to be conservative, but nonetheless was enough to be highly lethal.
“‘One ton of sarin could easily be used to perpetrate an attack on the scale of the 2013 attack. It could also be used for roughly 10 attacks of a similar size to the recent Khan Sheikhoun attack,’ he said.”
Back in 2013, Kaszeta backed similar evidence free claims by Israeli defense officials.
From the perspective of Israeli military deception and propaganda, the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency have been a resounding success. Trump has already given his backers in the Israel Lobby a great return on their investment and the promise of more to come. With Trump in power, Israel expects to win bigly.
“A Unifying Purpose” – Israeli-Saudi-US Alliance preparing for another “regime change” war
Col. Lawrence Wilkerson warns that the Trump administration’s 2017 rhetoric on Iran recalls the prelude to the 2003 Iraq War
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feaKUgrbeqs
Wilkerson refers to Iran as “the natural hegemon” in the region.
Israel, and to a vastly lesser degree, Saudi Arabia, vehemently oppose such a notion.
Israel broadly applies the term “terrorism” to any and all opposition to its aspirations for regional hegemony.
Outside the territory directly occupied by Israel, “terrorism” was deliberately bred (with generous Saudi and GCC support) as a tool for instigating “regime change” warfare.
The fact that these “regime change” wars have been highly profitable for the US and Israeli military-industrial-surveillance complexes is secondary to the goal of destroying and dismembering Israel’s major regional rivals: Iraq, Syria, and Iran.
The Israel Lobby has spared no effort or expense to thwart conciliation and cooperation between the United States and the Republic of Iran.
Meanwhile, Al Qaeda and ISIS terrorist forces in Iraq and Syria have provided a pretext for amplified US military engagement and lavish support for Israel.
Israel’s aspirations for military hegemony and its arsenal of weapons of mass destruction remain the principal threats to peace and security in the Middle East, not Al Qaeda and ISIS.
“The fact that these “regime change” wars have been highly profitable for the US and Israeli military-industrial-surveillance complexes is secondary to the goal of destroying and dismembering Israel’s major regional rivals: Iraq, Syria, and Iran.”
Secondary to the goal yes, but something Bush’s “base”, the “have-mores”, were licking their chops over.
I’ll tell you what Abe, if just 50% of Americans would read what you post, and taking into consideration they could comprehend the information you provide, your comments could change the course of this country’s future in a truly profound way.
Status quo ante bellum:
American “Government Assessment” = French “National Evaluation”
http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/170425_-_evaluation_nationale_-_anglais_-_final_cle0dbf47-1.pdf
France’s claims of a “Clandestine Syrian chemical weapons programme” mainly relies on “allegations” of chemical use laundered by Bellingcat.
Back in 2003, it was grandiose but evidence free WMD claims and waving little vials at the United Nations.
Now in 2017, it is the climax of a slow motion accretion of ambiguous WMD allegations, a false flag version of a “death by a thousand cuts”, and waving a French “National Assessment” at Les Nations Unies.
Defying science and logic, the French report relies on Dan Kaszeta’s debunked claims about hexamine.
The French report also refers repeatedly to “air strikes” and “air capacities”. The French even make the extraordinary claim that ” Modelling, on the basis of the crater’s characteristics, confirmed with a very high level of confidence that it was dropped from the air.” No evidence or data are presented to substantiate this claim.
Propaganda veteran Brian Whitaker of the UK Guardian is Tweeting like a madman.
Israel has a de facto alliance with Saudi Arabia and GCC backers of the Al Qaeda terrorists who have conducted chemical attacks in Syria.
Israel possesses the means, the motive, and abundant opportunity to supply Sarin nerve agents and other substances for false flag chemical attacks in Syria.
The Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR), an Israeli government defense research facility near Tel Aviv, develops offensive chemical and biological weapons including Sarin.
The IIBR facility was involved in an extensive effort to identify practical methods of synthesis for nerve gases (such as Tabun, Sarin, and VX) and other organophosphorus and fluorine compounds.
In a 4 October 1998 interview with The London Sunday Times, a former IIBR biologist said “There is hardly a single known or unknown form of chemical or biological weapon … which is not manufactured at the institute.”
The IIBR facility was receiving the components of nerve gas weapons aboard El Al Flight LY 1862 that crashed outside Amsterdam on October 4, 1992. The aircraft left Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport on route to Tel Aviv, carrying three crewmen, one passenger and 114 tons of freight. Seven minutes later, it crashed in a high-rise apartment complex in Bijlmer.
The crash of El Al Flight LY 1862 became the worst air disaster in Dutch history, killing at least 47 (the actual number is unknown because many victims were immigrants) and destroyed the health of 3000 Dutch residents. Cases of mysterious illnesses, rashes, difficulty in breathing, nervous disorders and cancer began to sprout in that neighborhood and beyond.
The Dutch government, in collusion with Israel, lied to its citizens saying the plane was carrying perfumes and flowers. In April 1998 again Israel denied there had been dangerous chemicals on board, but in Oct 1998 it was revealed that the plane was carrying 10 tons of chemicals used in the most dangerous of the known nerve gases, Sarin.
Karel Knip, science editor in the Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad, took several years to discover the facts. Knip published on 27 November 1999 the most detailed and factual published investigation about the workings of chemical and biological terrorism housed in IIBR.
The shipment from Solkatronic Chemicals of Morrisville, Pennsylvania to IIBR was under US Department of Commerce licence, contrary to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) to which the US, but not Israel, is party.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague turns a blind eye to the Israeli WMD activities. Israeli researchers have guided OPCW on methods to detect chemical weapons.
Knip first found out that the plane was carrying 50 gallons of DMMP a substance used to make a quarter ton of the deadly nerve gas Sarin. The shipment from Solkatronic Chemicals of Morrisville, Pennsylvania to IIBR was sent to Israel under a US Department of Commerce licence in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) to which the US, but not Israel, is party.
Knip reviewed the scientific literature produced by IIBR and the microbiology departments of the Faculty of Medicine in the University of Tel Aviv and the Hebrew University since 1950. He was able to identify 140 scientists involved in biological weapons (BW) research. The number could be more as scientists have dual positions or they move around. Many take their sabbaticals invariably in the United States.
There are strong links between IIBR and Walter Reed Army Institute, the Uniformed Services University, the American Chemical and Biological Weapons (CBW) Center in Edgewood and the University of Utah.
Knip was able to identify three categories of IIBR production: diseases, toxins and convulsants, and their development in each decade of the five previous decades.
The IIBR research moved from virus and bacteria to toxins because they are many times more poisonous. Nerve gases known as Tabun, Soman, Sarin, VX, Cyclo-Sarin, RVX and Amiton are all deadly gases and function in the same way.
Knip sought the assistance of experts in this field such as Professor Julian Perry Robinson, University of Sussex, Brighton, Dr Jean Pascal Zanders of SIPRI, Stockholm and Professor Malcolm Dando, University of Bradford. The scientists guided his research and explained his findings.
Knip discovered close cooperation between IIBR and the British-American Biological Weapons program as well as extensive collaboration on Biological Weapons research with Germany and Holland. That is probably the reason for the Dutch official silence over the deadly crash over Amsterdam.
The cooperation with the US is quite open. The Congress “Joint Medical, Biological and Nuclear Defence Research Programs” openly lists cooperation with Israel on nerve agents and convulsants under the guise of finding antidotes. Documents from the US Defense Department’s Office for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics confirm the frequent contributions of Dr Avigdor Shafferman, IIBR director.
Despite extensive evidence of Israeli development of WMD, including Sarin and other chemical weapons, mainstream media and Western government refuse to consider Israel’s means, motive, and opportunity to enable false flag chemical attacks in Syria.
Independent investigative journalism outlets have been reluctant to address the factors of Israeli chemical weapons and Israeli support for Al Qaeda terrorists in Syria.
Despite their persistent disinformation campaign since 2012, propaganda launderers like Eliot Higgins and Dan Kaszeta of Bellingcat have received precious little critical examination from independent journalists.
Fake “chemical weapons expert” Kaszeta now openly backs an evidence free “Israeli intelligence” assessment of the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack.
Nevertheless, no independent investigative journalists have conducted a sustained examination of Bellingcat’s multiple deception operations.
Guess we’ll have to wait for postmortems of the next war, if there’s anyone still left around to read them.
In 2014. professor Theodore A. Postol of MIT concluded that Daniel Kaszeta, the mainstream media’s frequently cited “chemical weapons expert” on Syria, was a fraud.
Australia chemical scientist Maram Susli communicated with Postol during investigation of Kaszeta’s bogus hexamine “smoking gun” claims.
Susli, an Australian, holds a Master of Science (MSc) degree from the School of Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences at the University of Western Australia (UWA) in Perth.
In 2010, Susli’s PhD research activities at UWA in Perth were co-funded by The Danish National Research Foundation’s, Center for Materials Crystallography.
In 2011, Susli’s research was presented in Acta Crystallographica, the peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr).
In June 2014, Kaszeta demonstrated his character by filing a false report to UWA alleging that Susli had engaged in terrorism activity, attempted to produce nerve agent in her organic chemistry laboratory, and advocated “violence against Jewish people”.
Kaszeta’s pal Eliot Higgins at Bellingcat demonstrated his character on Twitter
https://twitter.com/EliotHiggins/status/857175642202411008
MIT physicist Theodore A. Postol reviewed the White House report on the alleged chemical weapons attack in Idlib, Syria. He noted that the only source the cited as evidence of Syrian government responsibility for the attack was the crater on a road in Khan Shaykhun.
Postol concluded that the US government failed to provide evidence that it had any concrete knowledge that the Syrian government was the source of the chemical attack in Khan Shaykhun on April 4, 2017.
Postol accurately identified the amateurish nature of the White House report:
“No competent analyst would assume that the crater cited as the source of the sarin attack was unambiguously an indication that the munition came from an aircraft. No competent analyst would assume that the photograph of the carcass of the sarin canister was in fact a sarin canister. Any competent analyst would have had questions about whether the debris in the crater was staged or real. No competent analyst would miss the fact that the alleged sarin canister was forcefully crushed from above, rather than exploded by a munition within it. All of these highly amateurish mistakes indicate that this White House report… was not properly vetted by the intelligence community as claimed.’
Postol concluded:
“I have worked with the intelligence community in the past, and I have grave concerns about the politicization of intelligence that seems to be occurring with more frequency in recent times – but I know that the intelligence community has highly capable analysts in it. And if those analysts were properly consulted about the claims in the White House document they would have not approved the document going forward.”
“We again have a situation where the White House has issued an obviously false, misleading and amateurish intelligence report.”
Postol recently told The Nation:
“What I think is now crystal clear is that the White House report was fabricated and it certainly did not follow the procedures it claimed to employ.”
He added:
“My best guess at the moment is that this was an extremely clumsy and ill-conceived attempt to cover up the fact that Trump attacked Syria without any intelligence evidence that Syria was in fact the perpetrator of the attack…. It may be that the White House staff was worried that this could eventually come out – a reckless president acting without regard to the nation’s security, risking an inadvertent escalation and confrontation with Russia, and a breakdown in cooperation with Russia that would cripple our efforts to defeat the Islamic State.
“If that is not an impeachable offense then I do not know what is.”
The Chemical-Weapons Attack In Syria: Is There a Place for Skepticism?
By James Carden
https://www.thenation.com/article/the-chemical-weapons-attack-in-syria-is-there-a-place-for-skepticism/
Such a curious situation. I was one of those people who believed Trump would throw a monkeywrench into the Washington Works but, instead, they threw it right back at him and brought him to his knees. Did he have the intention of actually bringing Washington under his rule if he was elected? Perhaps he never intended to do anything of the sort. Perhaps he was given an offer he couldn’t refuse (the nost likely scenario). Perhaps, as Robert David Steele speculated, he took a big bribe. Whatever it is his appointments reflected a traditional pro-war, pro-neoliberal stance without the benefit of the comforting rhetoric of the Democrats. Whatever is going on the internal power-struggle within the Deep State is not over. If you look closely at the policy you see, as usual in recent years, confusion in foreign policy and more confusion on domestic policies than I’ve seen for some time. With Obama it was pretty predictable. The war-mongers would pressure for wider war and Obama would drag his feet in domestic affairs all sides dragged their feet and nothing happened after Obamacare passed other than gestures.
On balance, we still are better off under Trump than Clinton. Trump will bring the government into even more discredit abroad and at home. Also, even if Trump and Congress has public support there are no policies or bills on the horizon that will do anything but make matters significantly worse. The reality is that every major public and private institution is systemically corrupt. Even if Washington rallied around the neocon project whatever policies they would initiate would fail not just because of corruption but because the people making decisions, as well as the American people as a whole, are delusional. Trump deals with images only–he knows that our culture operates using images and unconscious forces and Trump was smart enough to viscerally understand the collective unconscious of the American people and thus won the election. He lives in the unconscious and understands that realm. That’s why he gets away with falsehoods, bad decisions because his stance is of a “winner” even if he loses and for many Americans that’s all that is required of leaders. Trump is a different kind of political genius that fits our post-rational and post-scientific age. Image now trumps any kind of rational analysis of anything–even his opposition is now working that angle and learning from Trump. We have, in the space of a couple of decades (along with our response to 9/11) become unrecognizable as a people. Wherever we are going is not going to resemble the past in any way.
The Deep State first developed by Allan Dulles has been in charge for decades. Do read The Devil’s Chessboard for the history of the development of the deep state, by David Talbot.
Thanks DannyWeil. I hope that people who are not aware of that book will read it. Also, I feel strongly that the more that is revealed about the actions of the Dulles Brothers, through out their careers and beyond, the more we will understand many of our contemporary problems. Clearly we in deep trouble now…
https://www.amazon.com/Devils-Chessboard-Dulles-Americas-Government/dp/0062276174/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1493162355&sr=1-1&keywords=the+devils+chessboard
Also this…Link here: https://www.amazon.com/Brothers-Foster-Dulles-Allen-Secret/dp/0805094970
I had never heard of the book but read a review on the CIA website. Here’s a quote from it. ‘Years after the Bag of Pigs,…’
Anyone like to enlighten me about the ‘Bag of Pigs’ as I have never heard of it?
the g is rather close to the y on the keyboard, imho “bay of pigs” is the location the book refers to,
Even when I type “bag of pigs” into a search engine I get a full page of Bay of Pigs results.
Confounded as to why @W.Heron didn’t just use a search engine, rather than display his ignorance here, for all to marvel.
Banger – Thank you. Your analysis is amazing. It has clarified lot of ambiguities in my head.
Yes, every major US public and private institution is systemically corrupt. This is the corruption of culture wrought by the social and moral corruption of mass media. That in turn is due to the failure of the Constitutional Convention to protect elections and mass media from economic concentrations that did not then exist, an error not corrected by the emerging middle class.
But the “political genius” of those who “viscerally understand the collective unconscious” is anti-genius, just the lack of ethics combined with lack of moral thought and concern with truth. This results in a lifelong study of that which is commonly persuasive and effective, rather than that which is rational and just. That is the genius of used car salesmen, gangsters, and the bully-boys who rise in business and politics and the military. The lowest scoundrels in the country can do that, while their moral superiors are spending their time and energy avoiding that and educating others to do so. The public acceptance of US politicians and mass media raving introduces its descent into fascism.
Very well analyzed Sam F, thanks…
Not a different people from before 9/11 at all. All of it extends back through the Cold War, and its seeds were sown with the doctrines of ‘manifest destiny’ and ‘American exceptionalism’, as both an ideology and a religion. The result is what Robert Perry describes. It is also true that:
“On balance, we still are better off under Trump than Clinton. Trump will bring the government into even more discredit abroad and at home”. It is ‘We the People’ who most desperately need to recognize the dangers of a national ideology in order that we might have a democracy.
Yes, but who are “We, the people” in this era of identity politics?
Trump is more respectful — and obedient — toward men with real money.
Just like the Clintons and Obama
Like all the coin operated politicians in service to the one tenth of the one percent.
Yes, their core value is money=virtue, so the more they steal the more virtuous they must be.
This article is spot on, as is everything Robert Parry writes. Please contribute to this site if you can afford it, and spread the word so we can at least attempt to counter the MSM BS.
Yes, once more we have an article of essential counterpoint to the mass media propaganda.
Those who would like to petition the NYT to make Robert Parry their senior editor may do so here:
https://www.change.org/p/new-york-times-bring-a-new-editor-to-the-new-york-times?recruiter=72650402&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink
Although the NYT may ignore this, it is instructive to them that intelligent readers know better journalism when they see it. A petition demonstrates the concerns of a far larger number of potential or lost subscribers.
Appealing to NYT Owners are like talking to a stone wall. They know what they are doing. CJ Hopkins in his article “The United States of Cognitive Dissonance” in Counterpunch, March 23, 2017 explains a little of it.
But , of course, it does not hurt writing to NYT.
Of course they know what they’re doing. The point is to let them know that we know what they’re doing. The bigger this gets, the more they’ll know their credibility is slipping away.
Ok, a good time to review the beginning of this Trump “oddesy”. Thanks Robert.
A couple suggestions:
“it was President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who pushed for “regime change” in Libya and Syria”.
Wasn’t it more like Obama acquiescing to his SOS’s policy recommendations? He seemed to have learned a bit from the Lybia debacle and turned away from her advise in Syria. Still, there was little to be proud of in his foreign policy…the same ol same ol as you’ve pointed out.
And, as far as the “Russiagate” issue….he had his chance to move in the right direction….come clean with his campaign’s connections and his own tax statements…instead of lying about everything. It certainly looks to me like there is credibility to some of the issues anti-Trump forces bring up. His continued stonewalling says “fire”…massive conflicts…possibly with oligarch forces in Russia, moreso than Russian government alone.
My “bullshit meter” went offscale when evaluating Trump during the election cycle. My question…how did anyone with a measure of social intelligence miss this?
There will be nothing good to come from Trumpism,.. other than a certain segment of the population might wake up. Maybe the whole “fake news” thing will cause some people to analyze what they’re reading other than just consume crap. Maybe it will scare Europe from right wing totalitarian politicos. Maybe it will finally become apparent to the masses that the REAL enemy lies within.
“…massive conflicts…possibly with oligarch forces in Russia, moreso than Russian government alone.”
Speaking of bullshit meters going off scale…
No evidence so far on any truth to Russiagate, and every evidence of dangerous propaganda. Do you think using a term like an ‘act of war’, while possessing no actual facts, is anything other? Get real. The same term was used for the phony ‘electrical grid hack’. The list is interminable. An investigation is one thing: propagandizing against Russia to bring Trump to heal to the War Machine is something else.
People who don’t see this don’t see that we have ‘lost’ our democracy. It is time to get real. And realize too that it is our own behavior, not that of Russia or China, that is showing itself as a threat to the world.
“No one has ever gone broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people”. H.L. Mencken. Trump’s supporters are so low information that they will not even notice that they have been betrayed. Trump’s mentor was Roy Cohn for heaven’s sake. Trump is a part of the deep state. He was plan B if Clinton lost. He was just a much better liar than she was. The American mystique of the brass balled cowboy and the never ending anti-intellectual proto fascist worship of violence is his appeal. The bad grammar and poor syntax just increases the affection of his supporters. Luckily for us this die hard Trump support is at about 30 % of the electorate. The rest of his support came from a protest vote. If you put a corporate shill on the ballot we’d rather vote for the blithering idiot.Hopefully the universal disgust at this last electoral cycle will produce a backlash in 2018, but as tightly controlled the electoral system is by the moneyed interests, that is small comfort.
“I said, ‘Mr. President, let me explain something to you’ — this was during dessert — ‘we’ve just fired 59 missiles’ — all of which hit, by the way, unbelievable, from, you know, hundreds of miles away, all of which hit, amazing,” Trump said.
“And he [Xi] was eating his cake. And he was silent,” Trump continued, adding that the Chinese president paused for 10 seconds before asking his interpreter to repeat what Trump had said.”
This suggests that President Xi is much more judicious and thoughtful when it comes to expressing his opinion. Has anyone ever suggested that president trump is judicious and thoughtful?
Pres.Xi made his opinion abundantly clear in the official comment on his return to China- “the act of an insecure president flexing his muscles”. Trump really stuns effective, thoughtful and experienced leaders such as those in Russia and China, even Iran. He is completely out of his depth, but not even close to intelligent enough to know it.
Beautifully written and spot on: Trump is not a leader he is a rough rag puppet desperate for a puppeteer.
Another excellent article by Mr Parry. But this article deals only with US foreign policy and outlines its continuing disaster originating from another failure to elect a true agent of change. But the change is even more needed internally. US is a land of established monopolies, which are persistently dragging it to disaster. For the citizens of US, the foreign policy is far from the most important. It is Trump’s failure, or rather his 180 degree turn from pre-election rhetoric, on everything internal which will result in the pressure for change/improvement not getting any release. Then US itself is turning into a pressure cooker and the pressure cookers have a bad name for a good reason.
If Trump cannot break the entrenched monopoly on foreign policy of the MIC, he has no chance of making any substantive change in the much more important internal policy areas. Personally, I supported Trump until the Syria bombardment, but I did write even before the election that the change in the US would require a much bigger Putin than Putin, whilst Trump is not even close to one Putin. Vladimir Putin was the agent of change in Russia who saved Russia from the disaster that it had been guided to by the same group of people who own the monopoly on everything in US. In fairness, perhaps Putin succeeded by the advantage of surprise, which Trump did not have. Or perhaps Trump was another faux agent of change groomed by the monopolists from the start.
Putin saved Russia from the clutches of the international globalist mafia which owns monopolies over US and all of the Western countries. But even this is not the main reason he is hated so much, then because he formed the core of resistance to their further global spread. Like cancer.
Excellent article! If we had your comment re internal policy, we have an in-depth, truthful and chilling assessment of our current situation. The danger our government poses to ourselves and to the world has reached unknown territory.
As of now, there is no structured opposition. We have a duopoly that dictates policy and delivers it through the MSM in terms of constitutes ‘patriotism’ and what ‘treason’. Our only hope is the urgent creation of a ‘Peoples’ Party’ that represents progressives as distinct from the Neoliberal Status Quo that can deliver an anti-war, anti-globalist message, both at home and abroad. The Republican Party needs to do the same; within the GOP are many who equally oppose the War Machine. Only then will the grip of the duopoly be loosened and their strategies and tactics exposed.
“Trump is not a leader he is a rough rag puppet desperate for a puppeteer.” I think this is inconsistent given yours and the author’s commentary. First, the author made it clear how the MIC and deep staters etc. have dominated him. Nowhere does he state, nor you provide evidence, that he is ‘desperate for a puppeteer.’ I think it’s fairer to say that the puppeteers are desperate – and it looks like they might be succeeding though still too soon to tell – to make him into a puppet.
The chances were always slim. First, he’s a human and all humans are easily killable. Second he has a family, each of whom is no less killable, but whose life he values, no doubt, more than his own. Any leader with a family is probably a puppet of sorts these days, so everyone (who thinks about these things) should have been aware of that from the day his candidacy was announced. I have been wondering the past two years who is backing him, or who has ‘got his back’ more like it. Who is protecting his wife and children and grandchildren? Somebody most surely is otherwise he never would be running in the first place. Probably Mossad-related given Kushner’s obvious role and Breitbart people presence (Bannon et alia). In other words, Trump represents the figurehead of one Deep State faction, we could say, and the media/Dems/liberal Judges/some of the MIC (CIA/NSA or factions therein?) the other main faction. Hard to tell.
Clearly, though, there is a fight going on. To call him a puppet looking for a master is the sort of sloppy, childish, analysis-by-insult writing that is all too common these days, albeit this one is a cut above most of them in tone, style and intellect. It’s still a shameless hit piece though with very little substance.
My feeling is that his faction is potent but smaller. Also, his victory was a surprise because they were the underdogs at the Deep State level. Which is why it was a surprise. His faction seems to be against the mainstream presstitute class and their leaders, the establishment Dems and Rinos who are the majority – by far – in Congress, the MIC/neocons, much of the CIA/NSA.
In my book, he’s got the right enemies. They seem to have overpowered him, but I think he might be able to land some very heavy counterpunches yet. But he/they will need time to line things up whilst in the midst of really thick, already bloody skirmishes. The attacks against this Presidency from before, during and after the election and inauguration are unprecedented. The enabling of this one-sided stream of invective by the media is truly extraordinary. That the polls don’t show his favourability rating at around 25% is a great victory in itself. He is still standing, although has clearly had to retreat on a few fronts.
It remains to be seen if he is doing a rope-a-dope. Increasingly, it looks like this might be just wishful thinking. But it always looks that way – in sports, in life etc. – just before things turn. I think his Presidency might well turn out to be like the last Superbowl. It looked pretty much totally and utterly hopeless at half time. Then look what happened. And after the pussy-grabbing video: no politician in US history could have survived it. It barely dented him in the polls for more than a week. The man has grit. And the power players behind him, whoever they are. He and they are not finished yet. Even if they do by some miracle prevail, doesn’t mean we’ll all like it because they are all crooks and liars. But I think he wants to bring back good employment and bedrock small town USA culture. And if he does, he’s got my vote. Despite the hairstyle and the refusal to speak English properly!
It is not Trump only in Washington who seems out of depth. In fact the whole congressional leadership and luminaries of the executive branch look like infantiles compared to the matured upper leadership of Russia and China. The Ruling U.S. Elites are arrogant, drunk with Power, and treat the World People beyond the borders of U.S. and E.U. with contempt – the people to be ruled. It is similar to the thinking Hitler had in his mind.
What would you know of Hitler? Are you a chosenite shill or have you been reading the MSM again. I suggest you read some real history on the greatest statesman of the 20th century. Putin is as shrewd and has the popular appeal but the same swamp dwellers who ran Washington and London in the early part of that century are still there safely nested in their slimy ways and who are just as capable of fomenting the same aggression on mankind. Trump was elected to clean that slime away and while it appears he has been turned, it may have a superbowl end being as ASH above suggested. If that happened there’s be a lot of egg on faces.
Thank you, kind Sir, my sentiments exactly.
It must be entertaining to the Chinese and Russians that the US has revealed itself to be such a permanently poor model for the progress of civilization, despite its historical advantages in resources and isolation. And very amusing that we are suddenly represented by a rich bumbling buffoon rather than the usual hired warmonger. Any case they might wish to make against capitalism in the developing nations needs no further argument.
As someone who originated from that part of the World, I can vouch that Trump is the spit-image of the rich, loud, dumb and primitive American tourist so despised in Europe. This has clearly been proven by his TV boast about how his bombardment went down with Xi, when he also mixed up the countries that he bombed.
Trump’s problem is that he was born into the wrong era. He would have been superlative as a royal court jester. The best – really the very best – ever.
Sam, Well said. All the brains of the World are in our Universities and Corporations. Given the resources, location with secure borders, and no Wars fought on it’s land – after the Civil war – and all the historical advantages, U.S. could have, and still can do so much to contribute to the progress of civilization. Instead, we are doing the opposite – destruction of countries and their civilizations. I wish, some body can put some wisdom, and compassion into the heads of the Ruling Elites.
The oligarchy bully-boys rule precisely because they do not have wisdom or compassion. They rise in unregulated business and use economic power to seize mass media, elections, politicians, and judiciary. The tools of democracy were left unprotected from economic power because it was not concentrated in 1787, and the problem was neglected during the triumphant emergence of the middle class from poverty. Now it is too late to restructure our institutions, unless external economic or military power destroys the oligarchy, or a revolution or coup topples it.
Sam F
That is a well deduced conclusion.
When the established institutions no longer allow for legal means of restructure, then the complainant may seek to level the field illegally.
In today’s USA, a violent revolution, although seemingly rational to a huge portion of it’s citizens, would be a nightmare for those crazy enough to attempt it, and the grip would tighten around those not yet convinced. In the November ’16 general election, 51% of the electorate voted. That makes it about 126M citizens, who still believe in the republic (likely everyone in uniform is among this number). They will not join the revolution.
There are approximately 280M citizens aged 16-65. To topple the oligarchy it will require that at least 100M citizens have to spend more than half their income on food. Only then will enough people be uncomfortable enough to stand up. Then they need to stand up as one. No Latinos united, or Asians for equality, Italian lives matter etc., etc., it has to be one body of citizens demanding more influence on the institutions of governance.
It is the only way, because those oligarchs will not give up without a fight, and the only way to disarm them them is to tear down the veil they hold over the eyes of those citizens in uniform.
The 100-day mark may be an artificial measuring stick for a U.S. president.
Nevertheless, we will be inundated with a plethora of scorecards from various media that will say much about Trump – and the scorekeepers.